*** As disciples of a loving God who inspires us to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God, we commit to faithful action to end hunger and poverty and to address their root causes. ***The purpose of the Hunger Action Congregation process are:
(1) to acknowledge and celebrate the faithful work of Presbyterians happening around the country to alleviate hunger and end its causes, and
(2) to encourage these ministries to be even more holistic and justice-oriented.
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STEP 1: FORM A HUNGER ACTION TEAM (if you don’t already have a similar team or committee to steward this work).
A) Gather church members – including children and youth – who are passionate about addressing hunger, poverty and related injustices. Decide how often you'd like to meet to assess and grow the church’s practices in this area.
B) Together, review the Covenant below.
You will likely want a record of your application, so please download the Word version of the Covenant at https://www.pcusa.org/hacprep and fill it out. This will be your church's copy of the Covenant.C) Then, you will be ready to cut-and-paste from your Word document into the form below, which is the official application that PHP receives.
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STEP 2: COVENANT TO BECOME A HUNGER ACTION CONGREGATIONThere are two levels: 1 - Covenanting and 2 - Certified
1 - COVENANTING: If you are doing hunger-related work in one or more of the six areas (see below), check the activities you are currently doing. Be sure to invite children and youth to participate.
You will be recognized on the PHP website as a Covenanting Hunger Action Congregation. PHP will communicate with you periodically with updates, opportunities, and stories from other congregations to encourage you to increase or broaden your hunger ministries into other areas, and you will be invited to connect with other HACs through social media, online, or in-person.
2 - CERTIFICATION: If you are doing activities in all six areas, after submitting the completed Covenant, you will be certified as a Certified Hunger Action Congregation and will receive a certificate to post in your church.
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Ending Hunger and Its Causes: Six Areas1.
Hunger Alleviation: providing food in a dignified way with an eye to long-term structural solutions
2.
Development assistance: addressing the root causes of hunger and poverty through equitable and sustainable development
3.
Hunger Education: learning about systemic causes of hunger, leading towards faithful action that is informed and directed by directly affected people and partners
4.
Lifestyle Integrity: adopting sustainable personal and corporate lifestyles to restore justice and protect all of God’s creation
5.
Corporate and Public Policy Witness: advocating and campaigning for changes in policies and practices to end hunger and its causes, promote self-development, and care for creation
6.
Worship: incorporating prayer, education, and preaching about ending hunger and its causes into worship
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* If you have questions, contact PHP at
php@pcusa.org or (800) 728-7228 x.5832