One of Franklin’s most unique charitable drives is preparing for its big day.
For the past 30 years, the 30-Hour Famine has brought together congregations from around the world to raise funds and awareness for victims of extreme hunger. While the First United Methodist Church event will look quite different due to COVID concerns this year, the group still has big plans to help malnourished people across the globe and right here in Macon County.
“It’s pretty different this year. Many people come together and used their creative minds to figure out what we could do,” said FUMC youth minister and local 30-Hour Famine organizer Vicki Lawrence. “In the past, we have had collection points out in the community the date of the famine. We’re not going to be at the different stores or the gazebo downtown collecting because we didn’t really want to put the kids out in the public like that. We’ve contacted businesses to ask them to be collection points.”
While in past years the church would hold a massive collection drive the day of the ‘famine’, a 30-hour lock-in in which FUMC youth fasted in solidarity with hunger victims, concerns over the virus preclude such a gathering this year. To raise money and food items for CareNet, the Macon-based food assistance program, and World Vision International, the Christian aid network that oversees the 30-Hour Famine, FUMC youth have placed collection boxes in roughly 30 local businesses. From now until March 13, local residents can donate cash, drop off non-perishable food, and even scan a QR code to donate virtually from a smartphone. Independent of the collection boxes, the drive is already off to a good start.
“We always kick off famine with a Super Bowl event, and normally what we do is have a lunch here after worship,” said Lawrence. “We couldn’t do that because of the virus, so we put together a soup-stew-chili recipe book because that’s what our lunch usually is. We asked the congregation to send in their recipes and told them they could have a recipe book if they bring a box of food or donation. … We collected $2,114 from that, and 532 items of food.”
Given the pandemic’s deleterious effect on people’s finances this year, the Super Sunday haul represents a big contribution from the FUMC congregation. While in recent years the famine has averaged six to seven thousand dollars in donations, both from parishioners and around the community, this year’s unique circumstances have pushed Lawrence’s goal down a bit. The church is hoping to raise $5,000 and 5,000 food items, and every dollar goes a long way. Forty dollars buys food and other necessities for one child for an entire month. In addition to fighting hunger in Macon County and across the globe, FUMC youth will spend March 13 improving one of Franklin’s community resources.
“We’re going to put all our focus into our outreach center, which is right across the street from Lazy Hiker next to the skate park,” said Lawrence. “We are going to clean up, fix up and make modifications to that area because we have a lot of community groups that come in and use that, so we’re trying to make the space better for [them]. We will also have a collection site there on the 13th from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and we have asked some of those groups to come in and explain what they do and how they help the community.”
“We have a medical closet downstairs [at the Outreach Center] where we have a bunch of stuff that we loan out,” said Lawrence. “We have so much stuff down there that we’re going to organize it and get rid of some of it because some of it is outdated and needs to go. … The screened windows really need new screens, so we’re going to re-screen all the windows. We are going to clean and probably going to paint the skate park room, and we’re going to put up some hooks and stuff to hang up the helmets, because right now they just sit on windowsills – just different things that will make it nicer. Also, if we have good weather, we are creating two more plant beds in our community garden.”
Between fixing up the community Outreach Center, raising money for the hungry around the world, and educating their youth members on the conditions of those less fortunate than themselves, First United Methodist’s Day of Famine will help the community in a variety of ways. After a long 30 hours of fasting and making improvements to the Outreach Center, the church will have some very hungry youth members to feed.
“You have to keep them busy, or they start to complain and get tired because they haven’t eaten, but they do okay,” said Lawrence. “There was one year where we decided ‘This is kind of crazy. We do this big dinner and there’s food that gets wasted and they eat so much that it really kind of defeats the purpose of what we’re doing,’ and so they served soup. They almost had a revolt on their hands.”