Hunger Relief Efforts Nourish People, Communities

Insights

• Grants from the Endowment's Rural Church program area invest in infrastructure items, such as shelving, freezers and refrigerators, and they help establish partnerships with food banks so that churches can maximize their food purchasing power.
• Churches partner with county agencies for eligibility screening and verification. These partnerships ensure that those in need receive food. At the same time, they give churches leadership roles.

Essie Cunningham receives a Second Helping box once a month. The delivery of canned soup, tuna, cereal and dried fruit helps her keep nutritious food on hand.
• Food and hunger programs provide service opportunities for church members to volunteer in their community.
• Staff members annually evaluate volunteer turnout and hours, pounds of food distributed and infrastructure improvements for these programs.

Impact

Through church-based hunger relief programs, families in need receive temporary assistance that helps put food on their table.

But the Endowment believes that churches also are strengthened when they're involved in outreach opportunities. Church members gain from volunteering together; community members might see the church at work and want to visit.

The Endowment recently reviewed all of its food and hunger-related grants awarded in 2006 and 2007 to study how effectively they helped churches and communities. During those years:

• The 32 programs supported by the Endowment engaged nearly 3,500 volunteers from local congregations.
• Volunteers donated more than 92,700 hours of service.
• More than 700,000 pounds of food was distributed.
• Some 7,498 families were served.
• Each family received an average of 94 pounds of food.

Contact Us

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Director of Rural Church
704.927.2251