NASHVILLE (BP) – Are you worried finding your next meal will be a struggle? Know someone who is? If food insecurity doesn’t affect you, it probably affects someone you know.
International Mission Board (IMB) President Paul Chitwood says the global hunger crisis is the worst it has been in four decades.
“Two billion people around the world today live on a single (daily) meal,” he told Baptist Press.
Sunday, August 24 is Global Hunger Sunday on the SBC Emphasis Calendar.
Chitwood said currently there are 733 million people globally who would be classified as chronically hungry and 350 million people are on the verge of starving to death.
Send Relief, the compassion ministry partnership between the IMB and the North American Mission Board (NAMB), is sponsoring the emphasis Sunday.
Food insecurity is “defined by not knowing where your next meal’s going to come from or not having consistent access to nutritious meals,” said NAMB President Kevin Ezell.
According to Ezell, at least 13 million children face food insecurity in North America.
Ezell and Chitwood addressed the issue and the upcoming emphasis day in an interview for the “SBC This Week” podcast. The leaders are asking Southern Baptists to give financially to meet the need through the 635 Challenge. Based on John 6:35, Send Relief says the challenge is “to alleviate hunger and spread the good news of Jesus Christ through giving, praying, and serving.”
They’re inviting Southern Baptists to join them by texting Hunger to 888123 to give a gift of $6.35, $63.50, $635 and so on.
To prove how simple and secure it is to give, Chitwood actually made his pledge while Ezell talked about the text platform. Ezell laughed as he thanked Chitwood for catching up in giving his gift.
Chitwood pointed to texts like Isaiah 58:7, Proverbs 19:17 and Matthew 25 as calls on God’s people to be mindful of those in need.
“Biblical Christianity cannot be separated from the call to be generous with what the Lord has entrusted to us,” he said, reiterating the call “to be good stewards and meet the needs of those who are hurting.”
Chitwood said many IMB missionaries encounter people facing food insecurity on a regular basis.
“Southern Baptist missionaries through the IMB around the world are serving in places where certainly they’re meeting this need in a very practical way by giving food,” he said.
Not only is meeting the physical need a way to help people made in God’s image “but that’s also an opportunity for them to be there to share about the Bread of Life,” he said.
The number of American children facing food insecurity typically spikes during the summer months, Ezell said.
“We see this especially in Appalachia and around many of our Send Relief centers,” he said, pointing to how the public schools provide one or even two meals a day for children during the school year.
That changes during the summer when the children aren’t in school. While many school systems still maintain a feeding program during the summer months, some children don’t have access to the food.
Chitwood said access can also be an issue for those affected globally by natural disasters, wars and political instability.
Last year, Southern Baptists provided more than 2.5 million hot meals to those in need, Ezell said, additionally delivering nearly 175,000 food packages.
Send Relief trained more than 31,000 people in agricultural microenterprise to help them provide for themselves and others.
The two leaders said a unique characteristic of Southern Baptist efforts to combat food insecurity is how much of the money is able to flow directly to those need because the Cooperative Program handles the administrative costs of Send Relief.
“When you give through these Southern Baptist channels of providing relief, every penny is used for the need on the ground because of the Cooperative Program,” Chitwood said.
Southern Baptists began partnering with the World Hunger Fund in 1978, according to Send Relief.
Learn more the 635 Challenge at Send Relief’s website.