Community Corner
St. Thomas Youths Experience Hunger During 30-hour Famine
Local event to promote awareness of hunger around the world raises more than $2,400 for World Vision.
“Empty–mentally, emotionally and physically.”
That’s how one young person answered the question, “How did not eating for 30 hours make you feel?”
About 30 youths from St. Thomas Community Presbyterian Church participated in a 30-hour Famine, both to experience the feeling of hunger and to raise awareness of hunger around the world.
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All participants were required to raise at least $30 for the event. The donations went to World Vision to benefit Haiti.
Director of youth ministry Rachel Sullivan explained that the church has an ongoing effort of support for Haiti that included a mission to build a water tower and treatment system last fall. Another mission is planned in May.
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The 30-hour Famine participants started fasting after lunch on Friday and did not break their fast until Saturday afternoon.
Those hours were a time for Bible study and community service. Activities included house cleaning for senior citizens, assembling care packages for college students who are away at school and making special treats for the animals at the county shelter. The final activity was a road rally where the goal for each team was to produce an image of “What hunger means to me.”
Jessica Brewer, 18, is a senior at Stony Creek High School and cochairs the St. Thomas youth council.
She said she wanted to participate to “really know what hunger feels like.” She added that not enough people are aware of children experiencing hunger around the world.
Alex Williams, 16, a sophomore at Eisenhower High School, said it was all for a great cause, but he realizes that “Thirty hours is nothing compared to what others go through.”
Williams raised $165 and said that amount would feed a hungry child in Haiti for at least five months.
All together, the group raised more than $2,400.
“If you can do this in 30 hours, think what you could do in 30 days or a year,” Sullivan told the group at a worship service where participants shared their experiences and joined in song and prayer to close the event.
To break their fast, each member of the group ate a spoonful of homemade CSB, corn-soy blend, a mixture of cornmeal, flour and oil that’s used to feed malnourished children in countries like Haiti. Then, they were off to enjoy a well-deserved lasagna meal.
