Just Eating: Practicing Our Faith at the Table

This material is published by the Presbyterian Hunger Program, but available on the Church World Service Website.  This is an extensive resource for use in parishes as part of a family education unit on hunger and justice and food.  However, there are loads of good Scripture selections, activities and suggestions for follow-up activities.

Mennonite Central Committee

Most of their materials can be borrowed free of charge.

The Hunger Site

There is a curriculum for grades K-4 using some children’s literature.  There are also suggestions for practical projects under “activities.”

United Nations World Hunger Programme

This link will take you to an interactive map which lets students look at different nations and how severe their hunger problems are as well as some of the sources of their hunger crisis.

Theology Library

This site has articles, church documents and statements that relate to the issue of hunger.

Hunger in the World Curriculum

Intended for grades 9-12, this unit includes good information and activities.

Bread for the World

This organization works on domestic and global hunger issues.  Yearly they sponsor a campaign called an “offering of letters.”  It includes educational materials as well as sample letters to write to legislators around the specific hunger or poverty issue chosen that year.  It is a very effective campaign and suitable for older elementary through adult.

Feeding Children Better

This link will take you to a page dealing with childhood hunger in our own country.  The quiz is online and gives the facts about childhood hunger once you input your answer (multiple choice).

The Great American Bake Sale

The great American Bake Sale is a national campaign that encourages everyone to help end childhood hunger in America by hosting a bake sale in their community Oct. 16 through Feb. 28.  The website also includes some limited information on childhood hunger in the U.S.

Heifer International

You can request a free hunger curriculum. Go to their Educational Resource page.

 The church curriculum is entitled “Animal Crackers.”

St. Andrew Society

They offer a six- week Scripture study on hunger.  You can order hard copies at a cost, but it is a free download from the website.  The website has other information about hunger and about gleaning programs and wasted food in our country. 

They have an online quiz about national and global hunger.

Oxfam America

This is a hunger simulation which is done on the computer.  People are asked to become a person; they receive background information about that person and have to make some choices about that person’s future.  It is a cyber-version of the hunger banquet.

 They also have an online hunger quiz which covers both domestic and global hunger.

They also provide almost all the materials you need to put on a hunger banquet (except the food).  You do need to register to do this, but the registration is free.  This registration also allows you access to some other educational materials.

Online

Online

Download

Simulation

All ages

Catholic Relief Services

Catholic Relief Services also has a food fast activity with a manual available online.  This resource includes prayers which the Oxfam site does not.  There is no registration necessary.  The page also includes a simulation: Life as a Coffee Farmer.  They have resources in Spanish as well.

Global Citizens for Change

This is a very simple opening activity to point up the inequity of food distribution in our world.  It is intended for students ages 12-18.

Church World Service

This is an online activity which can be done either from a man or woman’s point of view.  The person has to make decisions for this person.  The activity points up the very difficult decisions that the poor have to make.  It includes some reflection questions at the end of the exercise and encourages the participant to try the exercise again to see what the consequences are with different decisions.

Church World Service

 “Facts Have Faces.”  These are downloadable or can be ordered.

·         Hunger in a World of Plenty 

Planet Teacher

This is a UK site so some of the information and spellings will need some “translation.”

Suggested for approximately grades 4-6. One of the buttons on the web page is the “hot news” button.  This link will send you to a page which has suggestions for follow-up action. 

·         Hunger- Famine and hunger

This Planet teacher topic helps explain why so many people in the world don't have enough to eat.

You can also sign up for their e-zine free of charge.  They also send out information for use by youth group leaders.  Also free of charge.

National Catholic Rural Life Conference

The NCRLC has a campaign on the ethics of eating.  It looks at the other side of food issues in terms of our consumption and the supply chains for our food.

The Gerda and Kurt Klein Foundation

Gerda is a Holocaust survivor.  She and her husband set up this non-profit to promote tolerance and activism, especially around hunger issues.  Teachers may order a kit which contains 100 copies of a magazine “Stand Up, Speak Out, Lend a Hand” as well as a teacher guide and the Academy Award winning documentary about Gerda’s life “One Survivor Remembers.”  There are downloadable copies of the student magazine and teacher guide for your preview.  Target audience would be middle school and older.  The focus is not so much on hunger but getting active around the issue.

World Food Day

There are some simple suggested activities on this page.  There is also a classroom adaptation of the Hunger Banquet.

Kids Can Make a Difference

This page gives many suggestions for ways children can get involved and help with problems of hunger and homelessness.

kNOw Hunger

This is a six unit study for high school around domestic and international hunger issues.  Even though it is intended for high school students, it is an excellent resource for information about hunger in general including a glossary of terms.  There is a note on one of the pages that a middle school curriculum will be available soon.

Hunger No More

This page has a host of activities for children in order to learn about hunger and also has some suggestions for follow-up actions.

Presbyterian Hunger Program

This page has some simple hunger simulations for world hunger.

Foods Resource Bank

There are some educational activities about food and water for younger children as well as an educational sheet with 8 Myths about World Hunger.

Trocaire

Trocaire is the Irish equivalent of Catholic Relief Services here.  However, they have some wonderful educational materials available for downloading on their website.  They indicate the targeted age group.  Some materials will need adaptation because of spelling.  These activities have to do with hunger.