| Diocesan Hunger Fund and Walk for the Hungry 
What is the Diocesan Hunger Fund?
The Diocesan Hunger Fund is a volunteer program of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. It provides grants to local churches and nonprofit organizations that feed people faced with hunger and malnutrition in the geographical area of the Diocese. Examples include Manna Food Bank in Rockville; Joe’s Place food pantry at Christ Church, Durham Parish in west Maryland; and Charlie’s Place at St. Margaret’s Washington, DC. The Hunger Fund Committee receives no funding from the diocesan budget. It is solely funded by donations from churches, like Christ Church Kensington, and individuals.
What do CCPK volunteers do for the Diocesan Hunger Fund?
Christ Church supports the Hunger Fund a number of ways, primarily during the month of October. We highlight the problems of hunger in our area (see over); raise money through our weekly plate offerings; and participate in the Diocesan Walk for the Hungry. This year a team of Christ Church parishioners participated in the Hunger Walk around Lake Artemesia in College Park to raise awareness and additional funds. It was a beautiful day and the team had a really great time. (See photos on board.) Supporting the Hunger Fund is just one of several Christ Church Outreach ministries that address hunger among our neighbors. Others highlighted on the Outreach Board include Bethesda Cares, Meals on Wheels and Arcola Elementary School in Silver Spring (where 78% of the children qualify for subsidized meals).
How to get involved?
During October, you can join the Christ Church team in the Walk for the Hungry (normally toward the end of the month) and contribute to plate on Sundays. All Outreach contributions during that month go to the Fund. The Hunger Fund also takes contributions directly year round. You can contribute online at http://www.edow.org/diocese/outreach/hunger.html. Look on the Outreach Board, online at www.ccpk.org, in the Sunday bulletin, and the newsletter for updated information.
Want to sign up to help?
To learn more about hunger in our area, turn over this page!
Fighting Hunger in Our Midst
"For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink…” Matthew 25:35
We all know what the face of hunger looks like in places far from here, faces that are the focus of fundraising appeals and our late night news. Places ravaged by war, famine, poverty, disease, or naturals disasters. Places where adults and children live in perpetual risk of starvation.
But hunger is not a distant problem.
It lives right here among our neighbors in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. Tens of thousands of people within the diocese struggle to keep food on the table, even those who work and have a place to live. In fact, in Montgomery County and Prince Georges Counties (both in the diocese), 246,000 residents are at risk of hunger. And those numbers are growing.
Here in Montgomery County, our parish home and the country’s 8th most affluent county (by median household income), more that 25 percent of residents are at risk for hunger. (Capital Area Food Bank, www.capitalareafoodbank.org) Many are elderly or disabled. Some are homeless. A huge number are children. In fact, one in three students in Montgomery County Public Schools qualifies for free and reduced meals (FARMS), receiving both breakfast and lunch at school which is potentially their only daily nutrition. At Arcola Elementary School in Silver Spring, one of our Outreach Ministries, nearly 78% of students have qualified for FARMs at some point.
Hunger is preventable, though, and Jesus Christ calls us to help our hungry neighbors.
Christ Church helps fight hunger through many Outreach Ministries: Arcola Elementary School, Bethesda Cares, Meals on Wheels, and the Diocesan Hunger Fund. Our work with Arcola, Bethesda Cares, and Meals on Wheels is largely local in focus. Supporting the Diocesan Hunger Fund enables us to extend our reach to hungry neighbors throughout the diocese.
Given government cutbacks and harsher economic times, support for all of these organizations is more important than ever. Food banks and soup kitchens across the region are reporting increased need and decreased resources, both in donated food and funds.
Please join Christ Church in fighting hunger among our neighbors. See information on the Outreach Board and online at www.ccpk.org for details on how you can help through one of our Outreach Ministries, or directly through community organizations.
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