Family Solidarity – Global Food Crisis

Preparation: Put out various pictures of families, the more diverse the better – or set out a globe or world map.

Introduction: This month we gather to reflect on families.  In light of our Call to Solidarity, we reflect on families around the world and the challenges they currently face with rising food prices.

“Alert to rapidly evolving conditions in a changing society, we discern which world conditions we are called to address. . . . and what the urgent educational needs of our times are.”
- YAS General Directory #37

Opening Prayer:  God of All, help us to recognize all sisters and brothers in the global community as family.  Open our hearts to them, that we might live in solidarity with our extended family.  (Adapted from a Prayer Service for Global Solidarity, Education for Justice)

 “A silent tsunami which knows no borders sweeping the world.”
Josette Sheeran, head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP)

Reader One:  It is certainly a storm that has hit with little warning and has plunged an extra 100 million people into poverty.  It is not so much famine that is the worry, it is widespread misery and malnutrition.  The WFP says their biggest concern is for the people living on 50 cents a day who have nothing to fall back on.  - BBC News, April 22, 2008

Reader Two:  The World Food Programme appealed for hundreds of millions of dollars to cope with rising food prices that have sparked protests and food riots in 34 countries and led to bans on food exports in about 40 nations. - USA Today, April 24, 2008

 “The world’s economic ministers declared on Sunday that shortages and skyrocketing prices for food posed a potentially greater threat to economic and political stability than the turmoil in capital markets.”  - NY Times, April 14, 2008 

Reader Three: World Bank President Robert Zoellick has said the surging costs could mean "seven lost years" in the fight against worldwide poverty.   "While many are worrying about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs, and it is getting more and more difficult every day," said Zoellick.    – CNN.com, April 14, 2008

Reflection/Sharing (Use the following questions, or your own.)

1. What is your reaction to this situation?  Has the increase in food prices affected your eating habits?
2. How can we be in solidarity with our family around the world as it relates to this situation? 

Prayers of Petition (You are invited to share petitions)

Closing Prayer: God of Justice and Peace, help us to be committed to change unjust structures and to be peacemakers in a suffering world.  Empower us to be Christians not only in word but also in compassionate action.  Give us the courage to speak out for truth and justice and to prayerfully and patiently call for transformation.  In Jesus name we pray.  Amen.  (Adapted from a Prayer Service for Global Solidarity, Education for Justice)

Families and Food - Families share their shopping list with the BBC and tell how the global rise in food prices has affected their eating habits.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/7287793.stm

The Rodas Family (6 members)
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
The Rodas family spends 40% of its income on food.
1 kilo of corn tortilla flour: $0.71 (35p)
1 litre of cooking oil: $1.95 (97p)
1 kilo of chicken: $4.28 (£2.12)
1 kilo of potatoes: $ 4.40 (£2.18)
We spend approximately $250 a month buying meat, milk, fruit and vegetables, bread and tortillas, which is around 40% of our income.  The rise in the prices of the basic food products here is alarming, and it is even worse for the families in poverty, because they don't have enough food to live with dignity. 
We used to eat meat five times a week, now, only twice. The children don't drink milk three times a day but once for breakfast, and we don't buy some fruits that get too expensive depending on the season.
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The Wang Jun Family (3 members)
Beijing, China
The Wang Jun family spends 16% of its income on food.
1 kilo of rice: $0.62 (31p)
1 litre cooking oil: $2.50 (£1.25)
1 kilo of pork: $4.22 (£2.10)
1 kilo of lettuce: $0.99 (49p)
Food prices have risen in the past few years, especially last year. Over the past year, the cost of food has risen so quickly that we had to stop eating meat every day to save money.  We only eat chopped-up pork two or three times a week, but with vegetables. Eating meat on its own seems too extravagant for us.   Also, to save money, the mom wakes up at around 6 a.m. and cycles for one hour to go to an early market that sells cheap vegetables.
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The Mhatre Family (4 members)
Mumbai, India
They spend 20% to 30% of their income on food.
1 kilo of chapati flour: $0.55 (27p)
1 litre of cooking oil: $2.20 (£1.10)
1 kilo of chicken: $1.40 (70p)
1 kilo of beans: $1.04 (52p)|
Our weekly food bill comes to more than US$100. We buy vegetables, meat, cold cuts, eggs, dahl, rice, pulses, and cooking oil. Each week we try to eat out about twice.  We have definitely noticed a lot of price rises in the past two years. I don't think it has really changed our buying habits, but what it has meant is that we have to spend much more.
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The Abdulwahab Family (8 members)
Cairo, Egypt
The Abdulwahab family spends 80% of its income on food. Subsidized bread and cooking oil can be bought from government shops, but not in enough quantities.
10 unsubsidized loaves of bread: $0.45 (22p)
10 subsidized loaves of bread: $0.09 (4.5p)
1 unsubsidized litre of cooking oil: $2.30 (£1.15)
1 subsidized litre of cooking oil: $1.50 (75p)
1 kilo of lamb: $7.22 (£3.60)
1 kilo tomatoes: $0.37 (18p)
The Abdulwahab family lives in Imbaba, a poor area of Cairo. Egypt is the world's largest importer of wheat, so they have been hit hard by rising international prices. Instead of three meals a day, the family now eats just two.  "We buy more fruit and vegetables and we eat meat just once a week instead of every day."  The family is also increasingly reliant on government food subsidies.

Make a Difference
Urge national elected leaders to have your country contribute what is needed for the UN World Food Programme – the United Nations frontline agency in the fight against global hunger.

FreeRice.com is an on-line vocabulary game that for each word you get right, they donate 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Programme. It’s fun, informative and it really works! Give it a try!

Walk the World is the world’s largest annual global fundraising event and it benefits the UN World Food Programme.  Learn more at http://www.movingtheworld.org/