World Hunger Committee

Karen Nurmi, co-chair

We Are Resilient TOGETHER

The COVID-19 pandemic intensified the urgency of addressing hunger. Food pantries in the U.S. reported an average increase of 40% in the number of people served as the economic impact of the pandemic caused more people to seek emergency food relief. While these numbers have declined recently as the economy “re-opened” and people received federal aid, many still struggle to put food on the table. Globally, the World Food Program is warning that the goal to end world hunger by 2030 has been set back by decades because of the pandemic, and millions are facing starvation. Along the ELCA World Hunger network, the MNYS Hunger Committee remains firm in our commitment to God’s call to share our bread with the hungry and to work for food justice until all are fed.

Like so many others during the pandemic, the committee entered the “Zoom Age.” We are grateful to our Synod for providing us with a Zoom account so that we could continue our work. One of our tasks is to review ELCA World Hunger Domestic Hunger Grant applications from our Synod. (The new grant process, implemented three years ago, offers more funding per grant than previous grants, which has also made this a much more competitive process. About 20% of applicants receive grants.) Synod review teams read each application, have a ministry conversation/visit with each applicant, and then send a report to the award table at Churchwide, which makes the final determination. The Domestic Hunger Grant recipients in MNYS are:

Advent, Manhattan (2019-2021)
Trinity Place Shelter, Trinity of Manhattan and Seafarers International House (2020-2022)
Early LIFE Garden Initiative-LSSNY (2021-2023)

Congregational hunger ministries were also able to qualify for $500 in matching Daily Bread Grants through ELCA World Hunger. The MNYS congregations who received them in 2020-2021 are:

Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Huntington Station
Advent, Manhattan
Atonement East Elmhurst
St Luke’s, New Rochelle
St Peter’s, Manhattan
Trinity Lower Eastside

We ask God’s blessings on all of these ministries which address the root causes of hunger as well as meet immediate needs.

Via Zoom we were also able to participate in ELCA World Hunger events including participating a virtual ELCA World Hunger Leadership Gathering, which allowed more of us to attend from MNYS than if it had been on-site event.

We Are Hopeful TOGETHER

The MNYS Hunger Committee is excited to announce the formation of the Feed My People Collective, a pilot food justice advocacy initiative for MNYS congregations, which will begin in September. We are implementing this initiative because combatting hunger requires more than providing immediate food relief. We also need to address the root causes of hunger, like poverty, that keep people dependent on food pantries and meal programs. Breaking this cycle requires change in policies and practices, which can be effected through advocacy to elected leaders on behalf of those challenged by hunger. To learn more, and to sign-up, visit the Hunger Committee’s page on the MNYS website.

God's Work. Our Hands, TOGETHER

The MNYS Hunger Team invites you to:

share what your congregation is doing to address hunger
become a Hunger Contact between your congregation and the MNYS Hunger Committee, so that we can share hunger news from our Synod and ELCA World Hunger with you to bring to your congregation
become a member of our team

Blessings on all you do to care for the hungry.

It is important for people to realize that we can make progress against world hunger, that world hunger is not hopeless. The worst enemy is apathy.—The Reverend David Beckmann, ELCA pastor and former president of Bread for the World.