Raising funds to build awareness & support for the global food crisis

So we're ramping up to host a church-wide garage sale to help raise funds, as well as awareness for the global food crisis.  The current economic climate is effecting people all over the world-- especially those that live in impoverished conditions. Take a look at some of these staggering tatistics:

Hunger persists in the U.S.

• 35.5 million people—including 12.6 million children—live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger. This represents more than one in ten households in the United States (10.9 percent). ¹
  
• 4.0 percent of U.S. households experience hunger. Some people in these households frequently skip meals or eat too little, sometimes going without food for a whole day. 11.1 million people, including 430 thousand children, live in these homes.¹
  
• 6.9 percent of U.S. households are at risk of hunger. Members of these households have lower quality diets or must resort to seeking emergency food because they cannot always afford the food they need. 24.4 million people, including 12.2 million children, live in these homes.¹
  
• Research shows that preschool and school-aged children who experience severe hunger have higher levels of chronic illness, anxiety and depression, and behavior problems than children with no hunger.

World Hunger and Poverty: How They Fit Together

• 862 million people across the world are hungry, up from 852 million a year ago. ³

• Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes--one child every five seconds. ¹²

• In essence, hunger is the most extreme form of poverty, where individuals or families cannot afford to meet their most basic need for food. ¹
  
  
• Hunger manifests itself in many ways other than starvation and famine. Most poor people who battle hunger deal with chronic undernourishment and vitamin or mineral deficiencies, which result in stunted growth, weakness and heightened susceptibility to illness. ¹
  
  
• Countries in which a large portion of the population battles hunger daily are usually poor and often lack the social safety nets we enjoy, such as soup kitchens, food stamps, and job training programs. When a family that lives in a poor country cannot grow enough food or earn enough money to buy food, there is nowhere to turn for help. ¹

** statistics are sited by Bread for the World 

That said, as a church we wil be raising funds to go towards a local organization which helps low-income families right here in Seattle called FamilyWork and a global organization that works to build awareness and support to those effected by poverty and hunger called Bread for the World.  FamilyWorks is a food bank and family center which nourishes and strengthens individuals and families by connecting people with support, resources and community.  Bread for the World creates partnerships between churches, community organizations and non-profits to help spread awareness regarding hunger issues.  It is a tremendous advocate for the end of hunger in our world.  

Our garage sale will be hosted on August 23rd from 8 am to 2pm.  We need your help to make this fundraiser a success!  There are three main ways that you can get involved: 1) you can choose to volunteer for one of the shifts at the garage sale.  The shifts are broken into this time slots: 8a-10a, 10a-12p and 12p-2p.  Volunteers during shifts will help us price items, set up, merchandise items, flier neighborhood with notices of garage sale, collect cash and clean up.  2) We need your gently used donated items.  We can collect these items the week before the actual sale.  Please contact DeAnza at deanza[at]seattlequest.org.  And 3) Those that have trucks or SUV's following the garage sale we need your help to take eft over items and deliver them to Good Will or Value Village.  

Looking forward to hearing from you and partnering in bridging the gap towards the end of hunger and poverty in our world.  

~ Pastor DeAnza