“Is it time, yet?” asked one girl. “Can we go and change?” asked another. “When is it our turn?” asked one boy to Joseph Thompson, a longtime teacher at Blessed Sacrament School in Madison.
Tag: hunger
Blessed Sacrament School raises money to feed hungry
MADISON — Brothers and sisters, parents and children, Big Buddies and Little Buddies — they all raised money for the hungry at Madison’s Blessed Sacrament School recently.
Students marched, jogged, and flat-out ran to raise money for various charitable causes related to hunger.
Annual Hunger March
Last year, the annual Hunger March raised more than $12,000 that was distributed to local, regional, and international organizations.School supports Go Orange Fight Hunger Day
Holy Ghost-Immaculate Conception (HG-IC) School in Dickeyville and Kieler supported the Go Orange Fight Hunger Day on September 14 that was promoted by NBC 15 and other local businesses.
Coach Gard: Step up to help those in need
MADISON — Using a baseball analogy, University of Wisconsin Head Basketball Coach Greg Gard said, “We need to step up to the plate and help those around us.”
He gave this advice during a talk at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul’s Care Café, a community fundraising breakfast held May 5 at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison.
At Christmas God embraces us with love
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In John 3:16 it says, “For God so loved the world that God gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in him might not perish, but have might have eternal life.”
Gilbert Keith Chesterton wrote, “Out of love for us, the mighty hands that created the sun, moon, and stars became so tiny that they could not reach up to touch the noses of the oxen who tried to warm him with their hayed breath.”
Deeply moved by the infant Jesus, St. Thérèse of Lisieux asked, “Why should we fear God who became a tiny baby?”
Blessed Sacrament students raise money ‘marching’ for hunger
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| Blessed Sacrament School in Madison second grader Jayden Wijeyakulasuriya leaps joyfully past the church during the school’s recent Hunger March. (Catholic Herald photo/Kevin Wondrash) |
MADISON — “Show an Attitude of Gratitude.”
That is the theme this school year at Blessed Sacrament School in Madison.
That is the reason more than 60 first, second, and third graders laced up their running shoes and ran or walked around the school block as many times as they could.
The occasion was the annual Hunger March held recently.
Helping at home and around the world
For almost 40 years, the march has been an opportunity for students to make the Catholic values they learn part of their everyday lives.
In recent years, the Hunger March has helped many people both locally and globally.
Proceeds from the march have gone to building a well in Africa, helping a family secure the first month’s rent of an apartment, helping Our Lady of Hope Clinic in Madison — a non-profit medical group that provides primary care services to the uninsured, as well as donating to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
Prior to the march, the students asked parents, family members, friends, and neighbors to pledge money per lap they completed.
The march begins
As the 9 a.m. start time rolled around and the inspirational music played, the students finished their stretches and warm-ups and got ready for lap number one.
The students walked as a group for the first lap.
As they completed that lap, the students busted through a Hunger March banner and then some took off running as if they’d been waiting all day to do so.
Blessed Sacrament students march for hunger
MADISON — Students at Blessed Sacrament School in Madison recently raised more than $8,500 for the hungry in Dane County by walking or running in the school’s annual Hunger March — a tradition more than three decades old.
Poverty, inequality, and Pope Francis
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Just think about it. According to the United Nations, approximately 1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty throughout the world.
Clean water and sanitation, adequate nutritious food, a safe job with fair pay, an education, medical care, and a decent place to call home are unfulfilled dreams to these brothers and sisters of ours.
Every day they must somehow find a way to survive on less than $1.25. Even in the poorest countries, it is almost impossible to live on this meager amount. And in fact, many do not make it.
Affects of extreme poverty
Every day approximately 21,000 fellow human beings die from hunger and hunger related diseases. And according to the United Nations Children’s Fund, some 300 million children go to bed hungry every night.
No one should go hungry: Pope Francis launches ‘wave of prayer’ against world hunger
Most of us don’t know what real hunger is. We may get some hunger pangs when we skip a meal or wait awhile to eat. But we probably have never experienced the pain, weakness, fatigue, and other symptoms of excessive or chronic hunger.
If you check for symptoms of hunger on the Internet, you find that there are many other affects of extreme hunger, especially in children. Hunger hits children physically with delayed growth and development, as well as greater susceptibility to diseases. Hunger also affects children’s learning and impacts their social interactions.
One Human Family, Food for AllOfficial prayer from Caritas O God, you entrusted to us the fruits of all creation so that we might care for the earth and be nourished with its bounty. You sent us your Son to share our very flesh and blood and to teach us your Law of Love. Through His death and resurrection, we have been formed into one human family. Jesus showed great concern for those who had no food — even transforming five loaves and two fish into a banquet that served 5,000 and many more. We come before you, O God, conscious of our faults and failures, but full of hope, to share food with all members in this global family. Through your wisdom, inspire leaders of government and of business, as well as all the world’s citizens, to find just and charitable solutions to end hunger by assuring that all people enjoy the right to food. Thus we pray, O God, that when we present ourselves for Divine Judgment, we can proclaim ourselves as “One Human Family” with “Food for All”. AMEN. |
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What is really sad is that since over 40 percent of households in the United States live below the poverty level, approximately 13 million American children live with hunger or are at risk of experiencing hunger.
Campaign of prayer and action
What can we do to help those who are hungry? This week Pope Francis helped launch a global campaign of prayer and action against world hunger, according to a Catholic News Service (CNS) article.
Organized by Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican-based federation of Catholic charities, the global “wave of prayer” began at noon on Tuesday, Dec. 10, on the South Pacific island of Samoa and headed west across the world’s time zones.
Pope Francis offered his blessing and support for the “One Human Family, Food For All” campaign in a five-minute video message released on the eve of the global launch (go to food.caritas.org for his message and more information and resources on this campaign to end world hunger).
Caritas Internationalis invited its 164-member organizations and local churches to pray for an end to hunger and malnutrition as well as to act on a local, national, or global level against food waste and promote food access and security worldwide, said the CNS article.
In the United States, Caritas works with Catholic Charities USA (Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Madison is an affiliate) and Catholic Relief Services.
A shrinking pie: Put poor and hungry people first in the new farm bill
In his message for World Food Day, which was observed on October 16, Pope Francis said that “it is a scandal that there is still hunger and malnutrition in the world.”
The Holy Father emphasized, “It is not just a question of responding to immediate emergencies, but of addressing together, in all areas, a problem that challenges our personal and social conscience, to achieve a just and lasting solution.”
Cuts in food assistance benefits
In the United States, there are increasing numbers of hungry people. Many of them rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. As of November 1, the benefits to individuals and families were cut for the first time since 1964. That’s because an increase in food aid approved in 2009 expired, and Congress hasn’t been able to pass a new farm bill for over a year (the farm bill includes provisions to fund food assistance programs in our country).