Direct Service and Advocacy: An Awareness Activity
This exercise can be very eye-opening and is intended to show that many of the actions we take to fight hunger are extremely helpful in meeting short-term needs, but may not necessarily deal with the long-term causes and solutions. It promwpts discussion on the ways advocacy can complement our direct service work since advocacy addresses these long-term causes and solutions.
Place two large pieces of paper in front of your group. On the left-hand sheet, write “What We Do” on top and ask people to list all of the things that your church, college campus or community group does about hunger. Your list may include soup kitchens, food pantries, food drives, CROP Walks, Thanksgiving baskets, and more.
Then on the right-hand sheet write “Causes of Hunger and Poverty” on top and ask people to list the causes, thinking of both the United States and the world. Your list may include unemployment, lack of education, lack of health care, natural disasters, war, racism, etc.
Now ask people to look back at the first list of “What We Do” and compare it to the list of causes. How many of our actions address the causes? How many of our actions provide long-term solutions?
Bread for the World's Offering of Letters kit includes additional resources to facilitate discussion about hunger and poverty. Order from our online store
