Youth Learn Lessons about Hunger and Homelessness at Christ Church

From Rhode Island-

Hunger is something that happens to other people in other places, or so it is often be assumed. With the economic hardships of recent times, record unemployment and dangerous weather that is becoming startlingly more common than not, the subject of hunger is becoming something that can’t be ignored.

It might have come as a great shock to passers-by of the Christ Episcopal Church, Kings Highway, on Friday to see a shanty town built on the lawn: a row of makeshift dwellings built out of cardboard boxes and a sole pup-tent in the middle.

The effort is part of the outreach of World Vision, an organization devoted to confronting world hunger. The 30-Hour Famine program finds youth groups from churches across the country experiencing a day-and-six-hours in the shoes of the homeless, and instills in the participants a firsthand realization of what going without food or shelter really means.

This is the fourth year that the parish has participated in the challenge. George A. Reiner, a volunteer youth leader with the Rite13 group (11-13 year olds) for Christ Episcopal Church, explained what the kids involved were doing. "We have about twenty eight kids that are going on a hunger fast for thirty hours to raise money for world hunger," Reiner said. "They get people from the parish to sponsor them, and we have two churches (represented) here – Christ Church here in Middletown, and Christ Church in New Brunswick.”

More here-

http://middletown-nj.patch.com/articles/youth-learn-lessons-about-hunger-and-homelessness-at-christ-church