Meals for Millions – The HRA Initiative

The Hunger Relief Advocate Initiative is a joint mission project of the Society of St. Andrew and United Methodist Men. It is endorsed by the General Commission on United Methodist Men and the National Association of Conference Presidents of United Methodist Men.

This initiative seeks to educate the church at all levels about the causes and effects of hunger and the response to hunger that Christ demands. At the same time, it will create opportunities for the church under UMMen leadership to become involved in hands-on ministry with the poor on a scale only imagined before. The HRA Initiative is funded through Meals for Millions contributions.

The HRA Initiative has the following goals:

♦  Direct relief to the nation’s hungry through the delivery of about 54 million servings of food annually through the Society of St. Andrew Potato and Produce Project.
♦  Direct hunger relief through field gleaning in every annual conference resulting in 60,000 volunteers salvaging 90 millions servings of food per year for the nation’s hungry.
♦  A full-time national HRA sponsored by United Methodist Men and operating out of the General Commission on United Methodist Men (GCUMM) offices in Nashville TN.
♦  A part-time HRA in each UM Conference sponsored by United Methodist Men. Conference HRAs receive a small stipend.
♦  A volunteer HRA in each District and each local church.

An HRA has the following responsibilities:

♦  Facilitate UMMen leadership in combating hunger.
♦  Advocate to the church for the poor and for children, with special emphasis on hunger issues.
♦  Administer a local hunger relief gleaning ministry.
♦  Develop ways to increase UMMen support for the Meals for Millions program, the funding mechanism for this initiative.
♦  Develop ways to strengthen Scouting ministries through hunger relief activities.

Become an HRA

The HRA Initiative is a vibrant ministry with a proven track record. Since its inception in 1998, about twenty Conference HRAs have been established. In just one recent year, they together coordinated over 8,000 people to glean more than six million servings of food for hungry Americans. At the same time, our HRAs also helped to deliver another 12 million servings of food to those in need through the Potato and Produce Project.

The growth of the HRA Initiative in the form of additional Conference HRAs and in more food being delivered to the hungry requires continual growth in Meals for Millions contributions by United Methodist Men. In order to achieve our goals of having an HRA in every conference in the U.S. and increasing Potato and Produce Project deliveries by 54 million servings, we need to raise about $1.8 million per year through Meals for Millions.
Funding Breakdown

While $1.8 million may sound like a huge amount of money, it is certainly attainable. In fact, if only every chartered UMMen fellowship in the U.S. contributed just $200 per year to Meals for Millions, we would have the needed amount of funding.
To support the HRA Initiative, every UMMen group is asked to do these three things:

♦  PRAY for the Society of St. Andrew and for the HRA Initiative.
♦  GLEAN with your HRA or with the Society of St. Andrew. If you don’t have gleaning in your area, contact the Society of St. Andrew and we will provide you with the material you need to get started.
♦  DONATE at least $200 to Meals for Millions. See the commitment pages linked above.