Know Your Neighborhood

ELCA World Hunger has a helpful new (and downloadable) resource titled “Know Your Neighborhood.” It would be an excellent way for your congregation/hunger committee to evaluate the needs and strengths in your immediate community. While hunger is the key priority of ELCA World Hunger, ensuring everyone in our communities has enough to eat is not just a matter of food. It is also impacted by access to stable housing, sustainable employment and sufficient wages — as well as access to stores or markets that sell nutritious foods.

ELCA World Hunger begins its work of justice in congregations in the U.S. and churches around the world and with other partners by listening to neighbors and learning how we can partner together to break the cycle of hunger and poverty. The ministries ELCA World Hunger accompanies are rooted deeply in their local contexts, relying on local strengths to respond to local challenges in ways that the whole church can learn from, engage with and support.

Knowing your neighborhood statistics, numbers and other data can help communicate the impact of your ministry, encourage supporters and identify possible areas for growth or change. Data can help you and others know more about the challenges your neighbors face — and the assets that are available in your community. Using the worksheet and guide, you will find methods you can use to gather the most up-to-date data for your community. The brief guide will provide some suggestions for finding data related to several areas that impact food security: housing, employment and food access. Each section describes how to find the most reliable data and notes some limitations on the data.

Download the Know Your Neighborhood material.

Vernita Kennen
Incarnation Lutheran, Shoreview