Faith-Based Communities Come Together to Tackle Global Hunger
Perhaps you’ve heard the European folk tale of “stone soup” — in the story, community members each contribute one thing to a communal meal and together they are able to prepare a bountiful feast that feeds the body, mind and spirit.
It is in this spirit of cooperation and giving that the nondenominational faith-based organization, Growing Hope Globally, or GHG, formerly called Foods Resource Bank, has been operating since 1999 to address the issue of global hunger.
In a world where 815 million people suffer from hunger and nearly four out of five are rural subsistence farmers, the programs of Growing Hope Globally empower overseas farmers to break the cycle of poverty. GHG does this by giving the farmers additional resources and knowledge to raise their own food, thus improving incomes to create economic stability and establishing profitable livelihoods through farming.
The majority of GHG’s income comes from community-based growing projects, where farmers, churches, agribusinesses and civic groups come together to seed, fertilize, grow and harvest crops (and sometimes animals) on a plot of land. The groups then sell the grain or animals in the U.S., offering a portion or all of the proceeds to a specific overseas agricultural development program.
Read the rest of this article at lancasterfarming.com