Young leaders have always been crucial to God's plan for liberation. God consecrated Jeremiah in spite of his youthful reluctance. Timothy was encouraged not to let his youth hinder his work or his good example.
In recent years, student-led living wage and homelessness campaigns have modeled effective, purposeful action to overcome hunger and poverty in the United States. Campaigns like ONE, the Micah Challenge and the Catholic Campaign against Global Poverty have also energized millions of young people to fight poverty worldwide. Young pastors are guiding congregations in connecting their spirituality to compassion, mercy and justice in new ways.
Bread for the World is encouraging young leaders—on college and seminary campuses, in church and denominational caucuses, in congregations and on the job—to lead the way. Here are some ways to take action.
Organize an Offering of Letters
The best place to start! This handbook tells you how to organize an Offering of Letters for Seeds of Change: Help Farmers. End Hunger. Your Bread for the World regional or campus organizer is also a good source of ideas; see page 20 for contact information.
Plan an Event
Teach-ins, festivals, invited speakers and issues experts are great ways to introduce and educate about hunger and poverty. Build in ways to keep people involved through writing letters, joining an e-mail list, or signing up for a future event.
Take Part in Community Service Projects
Use service activities—at a local food bank or soup kitchen, for instance—as opportunities to educate about U.S. hunger and ways that national nutrition programs can help meet the needs of hungry people. Write letters about your experience and urge your members of Congress to support hunger-fighting legislation. Letter-writing also provides a great way for students to stay active after alternative spring breaks, church mission trips, and local service projects.
Coordinate a Lobby Visit
Gather a group of students, professors and other interested people to visit your members of Congress in their home offices. A face-to-face meeting is one of the most effective ways of influencing your senators and representative. Elected officials are strongly affected by the opinions of constituents who are committed enough to a specific cause to arrange a visit.
Collaborate
Leaders and groups often hold events that are very similar to each other. By collaborating, groups have more money to plan a better event and have a more successful turnout. Many universities have weeks with special themes where they hold a variety of events. Search for the weeks that include the issues of hunger and poverty.
Use the Internet
Use e-mail to promote upcoming events and share action alerts. Facebook, MySpace and Yahoo Groups are great ways to network and get the word out to a wider audience. Include Bread for the World links or Website banners on your personal Web pages or blogs.
Engage the Media
Letters to the editor represent your perspective in your campus or local newspaper, allow you to reach a larger audience, and show widespread support in your community.
Form a Local or Campus Bread for the World Group
Bring together hunger activists to meet regularly to study or work on hunger and poverty issues, design a strategy to educate your campus, neighborhood or town, and lobby your members of Congress.
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Along with direct service projects like packing meals for homeless people or overseas recipients, youth and campus groups can participate in citizen advocacy for hungry people.
-Gabriel Laizer |
