Local Students Fast 30 Hours to Help the Hungry

Members of FOCUS, the youth group of the , went without food this weekend to raise money and personal awareness for the plight of people around the world who are hungry.

“We’re a consumer society. We’re taught to eat as much as we can,” Pastor John Taylor told the group of students on Friday evening. “We will go hungry for 30 hours, but others go hungry all of their lives.”

Called the 30 Hour Famine, the program is sponsored by World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization focused on world poverty and injustice. Groups of students worldwide participate in the event. According to the group’s website, 925 million people worldwide are hungry. Every day, as many as 11,000 children under age 5 die due to hunger-related causes, one child every 8 seconds.

About 18 of the 30 members of the Westborough FOCUS group took part in the fast. The students ranged in age from sixth grade to high school. Each brought a sleeping bag and prepared to share the final 24 hours together at the church on West Main Street.

“This is going to show what it’s like for those who don’t have food. Step into the shoes of others,” high school freshman Jonathan told Westborough Patch.

Another youth group member, Haley, said, “People in Africa are starving on a weekly basis not just one time during the year.”

“We’ll be thinking about what it is like for people to go hungry. It’s awareness,” said Niki, She said that she “ate a lot” to prepare for the 30 hour fast.

Each participant contributed at least $30 to participate in the event.

“That’s a month worth of food for many children,” Taylor told the group. “The money will be given to World Vision to help pay for food.”

The fast, which started at noon on Friday, April 27, continued until 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 28. The group planned to break their fast with a Communion ceremony followed by a soup and bread dinner with their families.

Taylor said that the students were living scripture, citing a passage from 1 John 3:18: “Let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.”

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