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As consecrated women in Sion, living on many continents, we believe that we will be a blessing for the world….. ……If we know how to be in solidarity with the excluded, the marginalized, and all those who work for justice and peace in a commitment to the universal dream and Project of God, who wants life for everyone. (To be a blessing. General Chapter document, 2004)

-Some Facts and Figures
  • There has been enough food to feed the entire global population for nearly half a century.
  • More than 800 million people live with chronic hunger. " Each day 24,000 people die of hunger.
  • More than 300 million children suffer from chronic hunger-100 million of them do not attend school-2/3of those not attending school are girls
  • Every 5 seconds a child is lost to her family because malnutrition has rendered her too weak to resist disease
  • For US$.19 you can buy a meal for a school child.
  • The financial cost of ending hunger in the world is relatively modest. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) estimates that it would cost just US$13 billion to provide basic nutrition and health for everyone in the world
  • In 2005, 201,000 people walked in 266 locations in 91 countries, and by doing so, they raised enough money to feed 70,000 school children for one year!

Food for Thought

I want you to share your bread with the hungry, shelter the homeless poor, remove the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. (Isaiah 58: 6-7)

If your brothers and sisters have nothing to wear and no food for the day, and you say to them, "Good-bye and good luck! Keep warm and well-fed," but do not meet their bodily needs, what good is that? (James 2:15-17)

For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in; naked, and you clothed me; sick, and you took care of me; in prison, and you came to visit me. (Matthew 25: 35-36)

The progressive development of peoples is an object of deep interest and concern to the Church. This is particularly true in the case of those peoples who are trying to escape the ravages of hunger, poverty, endemic disease, and ignorance; of those who are seeking a larger share in the benefits of civilization and a more active improvement of their human qualities; of those who are consciously striving for fuller growth (Populorum Progressio)

Before the Lord of history and the future of the world, the poor of every generation and today, the ever-increasing number of victims of injustice and all the forgotten of this world challenge us. They remind us of Christ's agony until the end of the world. These sufferings cannot remain extraneous to the celebration of the Eucharistic Mystery, which summons all of us to work for justice and the transformation of the world in an active and conscious fashion on the basis of the social teaching of the Church that promotes the centrality and the dignity of the human person. (The Eucharist: Living Bread for the Peace of the World)



Jesus, at the sight of the crowds, was moved with pity. (Mat. 9:36) Moved like Jesus with compassion for the crowds, the Church today considers it her duty to ask political leaders and those with economic and financial power to promote development based on respect for the dignity of every man and woman. (Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for Lent 2006)


What You Can Do
Walk the World on May 21, 2006. Join the UN World Food Programme (WFP), Caritas Internationalis; The Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Commission of the UISG/USG; and the Rome Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Promoters to help end child hunger and fulfill the promise of the Millennium Development Goals to reduce chronic hunger and poverty by one half by 2015.

If we can reduce hunger, especially the hunger of mothers and children, we can break the cycle of poverty that imprisons so many. Our faith compels us to act. The Walk allows us to put our faith into action. Our action is rooted in our absolute belief in the dignity of each human person and the right of each to the food necessary to live a truly human existence. Our hope is that we can transform structures that impoverish people and threaten sustainable human development.


Act Now
  • Pledge to walk on Sunday, May 21, 2006
  • Learn more about hunger and its solutions
  • Sponsor the Global Walk, a Local Walk, or Walkers. Organizational materials are available at the Walk the World Download Site in English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic and French. You can download planning guides, sign-up sheets, posters, brochures, leaflets and logos.
  • Link your website to the www.fighthunger.org website
  • Encourage your colleagues, students, family, and friends to join the Fight Hunger: Walk the World event
  • Participate in local projects to fight hunger.
  • Support farmers in the developing world by purchasing Fair Trade Products
  • Pray. Organize days of prayer and fasting in solidarity with the 800 million people who go hungry every day. Learn More
  • Explore hunger's causes, effects, and solutions at Counting the Hungry, the interactive site of the UN World Food Program (WFP

********************************************************Prayer
Open our eyes, O Lord, to the needs of our brothers and sisters who lack the basic necessities of life. We pray for the billions who are hungry, who do not have clean water, basic health care, or adequate housing. Make us aware that so many live without the things that we consider basic. Give us the wisdom to understand the causes of such poverty and show us how we can be a part of the work of transforming unjust structures so that all your children can be called to the table and share in the fruits of your Creation. Amen. (Adapted from a prayer by Women of Brazil)