Faith In Action: Congregational Hunger Awareness — Short-term And Long-term (30 minutes)
Materials for Activity
- One to four large sheets of poster board
- Newsprint, markers and tape
- Color markers for participants to share
Preparation for Activity
Review all four hunger awareness activities that are suggested here: (1) make welcome signs for a food pantry (short-term activity), (2) conduct a congregational food drive, (3) learn about local food needs, and (4) visit and/or volunteer at a food pantry.- You may choose to do any combination of these activities. Introduce the project today. Plan to have the children make "Welcome" signs today, while longer-range plans take shape. Find follow-up steps in Session 7: Seeing Others with Awe.
- Call local food pantries to find out what food needs they have.
- Identify a food pantry that will display "Welcome" signs the children will make.
- Find out whether children in this age range would be allowed to volunteer in some capacity at a food pantry. If so, determine which volunteer opportunities would be appropriate for your congregation and set a date for the children to help.
- Make a plan to bring hunger awareness to parents and others in your congregation. Coordinate plans with your minister to involve the entire congregation, including adults other than the children's parents, in the volunteer work. For example, consider collecting food every Sunday for a month in a special offering during the worship service.
- Set up a visit during coffee hour or another arranged time with a worker or trained volunteer from the food pantry to talk with the children and others in the congregation about local food needs. Be sure the speaker understands the audience will include young children. If possible, have the children gather a few minutes before the informational session to brainstorm questions they would like to ask the worker from the food pantry. If children will visit the food pantry, this guest should come before the children's visit there. Or, the guest's presentation could be in lieu of children going to the food pantry.
- Consult your director of religious education to identify a central location for food donation collection and to announce the plan to the congregation through the newsletter, email lists, Sunday announcements or bulletins.
- Write the word "Welcome" on newsprint, and post.
- If a group will be visiting the food pantry, create a sign-up sheet and recruit volunteers. Communicate the expected numbers of volunteers, and their ages, to workers at the food pantry. Be sure to tell volunteers that the activity includes an after-the-fact discussion of the experience, and when and where that discussion will take place.
- Provide directions and arrange transportation to the food pantry.
Description of Activity
In this session, participants had the opportunity to
experience a welcome feast. Many people in the
To introduce the food drive and/or volunteer work, say:
In the story you heard, Mullah Nasruddin was not welcome at the table in his dirty clothes. Some people don’t have a feast to go to, and some people don’t even have a home. Many families don’t have enough food to eat.
Tell the class briefly about your planned food drive and/or work at the food pantry. Then continue:
When people go to the food pantry, we don’t want them to feel like Nasruddin did. We want everyone to know that they are welcome, no matter what, so we are going to make welcome signs.
Invite them use the color markers and poster board to decorate one to four large welcome signs which will be posted at the soup kitchen or food pantry. Point out the newsprint where you have written the word “Welcome.” You may want to assign small groups of children to work together on a poster. If you help them make “bubble letters,” a few children can color them in at a time.
Children in second and third grade are often very compassionate and concerned when they encounter injustice. Participation in a concrete service project provides them with an outlet for their concern and empowers them as agents of justice. Moreover, they will experience what it means to translate into action our Unitarian Universalist principles, which promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person as well as justice, equity and compassion in human relations. By participating in this or similar projects, children will learn that one aspect of a religious life is serving others and being responsive to their human needs.
INCLUDING ALL PARTICIPANTS
It is important to remember as you plan and lead this activity that some families in your congregation, and some children in the group, might be homeless or living below the poverty line. Be careful to use language that includes this possibility and that does not assume all of the children come from financially wealthy homes. You can help normalize the experience by saying something like, “Some families in our congregation sometimes go to the food pantry and lots of families need the help of food pantries at some time or other.” However, be respectful of the right to personal privacy and do not identify particular individuals without permission.
FAITH IN ACTION: PROTECTING SEALS, AWARENESS/FUNDRAISING – LONG-TERM (30 MINUTES)
MATERIALS FOR ACTIVITY
¨ Posters children have made about the letter-writing and/or bake sale project and tape to post them
¨ Handouts you have obtained from seal protection organizations
¨ A copy of the story, “The Wounded Seal” (Session 4: In Another’s Shoes, Stories)
¨ Gray shirts for participants acting as seals
¨ Tables, chairs, and tablecloths for letter-writing and/or bake sale
¨ Money collection tin, small change, napkins or paper plates, and index cards and markers to post baked goods prices for bake sale
¨ Postcards or card stock cut to size of postcards, pre-printed letters to Canadian government officials and/or paper for letter-writing, envelopes as needed, and postage stamps
¨ List of address(es) where postcard or letters will be sent
PREPARATION FOR ACTIVITY
§ Have arranged with the minister, director of religious education, and/or congregational worship leaders for the group to retell the story, “The Wounded Seal,” at a service not too long after you have completed Session 4.
§ Have requested that parents bring children to prepare for the retelling, 30 minutes before worship begins (Session 4, Leader Resource, Faith in Action Letters to Parents).
§ Have rehearsed this story with the children at least once, prior to today.
§ Optional: Have the children who will be seals wear something gray that day. If a child will act out the part of the Seal Hunter, you may like to have him/her wear gray under another costume, and remove the top costume after helping to heal the Wounded Seal.
§ Ask the director of religious education to invite older children to come and help with letter-writing.
§ Order pre-written/pre-addressed postcards from a seal protection advocacy organization (Session 4, Leader Resouces). Obtain sample letters, as well as information about where letters or postcards should be sent. Obtain postage stamps.
§ Ask congregational leaders to announce the letter-writing campaign and/or bake sale during worship. Announce the letter-writing project and/or bake sale to protect seals in congregational bulletin and in worship during the prior week and on the day of the event. Put up posters announcing the letter-writing and/or bake sale at least one week prior (See Session 4, Faith in Action: Protecting Seals, Awareness/Fundraising – Long-term).
§ Arrange with coffee hour organizers to set up the tables you will need for the letter-writing and/or bake sale. Have chairs for people to sit and write letters.
§ Set out all needed materials on the tables, including informational handouts.
§ If you are not using pre-addressed postcards or envelopes, provide the names and addresses where postcards/letters will be sent for people to copy.
§ Have asked parents to help by providing baked goods for the bake sale.
§ Decide which seal protection organization to support with bake sale proceeds and obtain informational handouts from the organization about its work. Or, plan to use the money to buy postage stamps for the letter-writing campaign.
DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITY
The seal protection awareness and/or fundraising campaign for the whole congregation began in Session 4: In Another’s Shoes (empathy), sparked by children’s experience of the story, “The Wounded Seal.” In this session, the children will interact with the wider congregation in one or more of the projects you began planning in Session 4 and moved forward in Session 5: (1) retelling the story, “The Wounded Seal” during worship, (2) leading a congregation-wide letter-writing campaign, and/or (3) raising money for seal protection advocacy with a bake sale.
Besides helping you retell the story, children may help to bake the goods for sale, decorate post cards, stuff and stamp letter envelopes, or hand out flyers and talk to other people at coffee hour about seal protection.
As the children share their concern for seal protection with others, they turn their own empathy into action. Further, they witness adults in the congregation demonstrating empathy and caring as they take action to help other living beings that are suffering.
Retelling the story, “The Wounded Seal”
Today during worship, you will share the story, “The Wounded Seal,” with the children acting out the movements. Gather the children 30 minutes before worship begins. Go over the story and their roles in the worship space, so they will be comfortable coming up front when they are called. If you have gray or brown shirts for children to wear, or they have brought their own, have children put these on before the worship service.
Take the time to relax the children and yourself with a quick stretch and calm breathing activity. After you tell the story to the congregation, take a minute to tell them that as part of your exploration of empathy the Moral Tales group talked about how seal-hunting is still going on in Canada today, and that groups that protect seals and monitor the seal hunts believe that hundreds of thousands of baby seals are cruelly killed or injured annually. Invite the congregation to join you at coffee hour for a letter-writing/fundraising effort to protect the seals. Let them know that you have more information available in a flyer if they want to do their own research.
Leading a congregation-wide letter-writing campaign
Today, the children have invited the whole congregation to
sign postcards or write letters expressing their concern for the practice of
seal hunting in
In the previous session you will have discussed how the children can help on this day. Before joining the congregation at coffee hour, remind the children what they are to do at the letter-writing table.
Raising money for seal protection advocacy with a bake sale
Arrive at your congregation early enough to set up the bake sale table with a table cloth and to put out signs, paper plates and napkins. Meet parents in the coffee hour space before worship to collect donated baked goods, set them on bake sale table, and put out index cards, markers, money collection tin and small change, and paper plates and napkins. Cover all bake sale items.
INCLUDING ALL PARTICIPANTS
There may be members of the congregation who do not wish to take part in this activity. Some may want more information to help them make a decision about participating. Download information from one of the seal protection advocacy organizations mentioned in Session 4, Leader Resources to have on hand when the children actively engage with adults. Tell the children that giving adults more information can help awaken their empathy, just as meeting the Wounded Seal awakened the Seal Hunter’s empathy and hearing the story awakened theirs.
Let the children know that Unitarian Universalists respect one another’s choices about where and how to take action for goodness and jutice. It is all right that some people may not agree to help, including possibly some of their parents.
Including All Participants
It is important to remember as you plan and lead this activity that some families in your congregation, and some children in the group, might be homeless or living below the poverty line. Be careful to use language that includes this possibility and that does not assume all of the children come from financially wealthy homes. You can help normalize the experience by saying something like, "Some families in our congregation sometimes go to the food pantry and lots of families need the help of food pantries at some time or other." However, be respectful of the right to personal privacy and do not identify particular individuals without permission.Last updated on Saturday, April 19, 2008.
