A
crop for world hunger
The fifth- and sixth-grade Sunday school class at College Mennonite
Church in Goshen, Ind., didn’t opt for small goals this
summer. They’re taking on world hunger.
The class, encouraged by pastor Rosemary Widmer and in partnership
with farmer and member Tom Gunden, is leading the church in
a Foods Resource Bank (FRB) project. Through FRB, crops are
raised and sold in the United States, and the proceeds fund
agricultural projects, including MCC projects, in other countries.
Gunden offered to plant, maintain and harvest 5 acres of soybeans
for the FRB project if a group within the church would help
cover the costs of seeds, fertilizer and rent for the field.
Widmer thought immediately of the fifth- and sixth-grade class.
“It’s a way they can express their willingness to
contribute to the world, to follow Jesus’ example of caring
for others. It’s a tangible way of giving their money and
their love,” said Widmer.
She said funds will go toward an MCC project through Foods Resource
Bank, but a particular project hadn’t been chosen yet.
Students wrote letters to their parents explaining the project
and asking to do extra tasks around the house to raise money
for it.
“I was excited to help the church get involved in raising
money and giving food,” said Emily Stoltzfus, an 11-year-old
who learned to play two songs on her violin in exchange for
her father’s $50 donation to the project. “It’s
really great to know the food we grow is going to help people.”
Neil Rippey, 13, noted that he especially liked that the crop
grown in Indiana helps farmers to have the tools, supplies and
knowledge they need to produce more food for their families.
“They don’t have to rely on us for food,” Rippey
said.
The first Sunday in June, the class presented the project to
the congregation. Between the worship service and Sunday school,
they put coins in large tin buckets and jingled them, collecting
coins from worshipers.
“One person even gave a 20-dollar bill,” said Jesse
Loewen, 11. The class raised some $175 in the time between the
church service and Sunday school. They’ll collect coins
again the first Sundays in July and August.
And students continue to raise their own funds.
Loewen has been mowing the lawn, cleaning his room and doing
other chores to raise money from his parents. Takoda Friesen,
11, was part of a group that went out to Gunden’s farm
and helped clear another field of all the rocks bigger than
a fist. He took the $10 Gunden paid each student and donated
it to the project.
Gunden rents the land where the soybeans are planted, and the
owner reduced rent for this season after learning of the project.
Gunden’s regular suppliers donated seed and fertilizer.
The project began with MCC Great Lakes regional associate Gwen
Gustafson-Zook coming in to talk to the fifth- and sixth-grade
class about hunger throughout the world. “She helped the
kids see the bigger picture,” said Sunday school teacher
Eileen Becker-Hoover. “She helped them understand there
is enough food to feed everyone. But (people) are hungry because
of war, because they have to export food, because there isn’t
enough water.”
And the learning didn’t just focus on hunger. Gunden, one
of two farmers in College Mennonite, a congregation of more
than 1,000 people, also came to class to talk to youth about
the process of planting and harvesting the field.
“I thought maybe this’ll be a chance to show some
of the kids how agriculture works, what it takes to plant a
crop and harvest it,” Gunden said. When he came to talk
to the class, he drew out on the board the economics of a farming
operation, the costs and the potential gains and later invited
students to come out for planting in May. The soybeans will
be harvested in late September or early October, another opportunity
for students to gather.
And he hopes the project will also spark a sense of giving
in students’ own lives. “Hopefully by me being a little
bit generous, it helps them to see how they can be generous
with other people,” Gunden said.
- Marla Pierson Lester
