Suggested Activities

The following is a list of suggested events for National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.  Please feel free to develop new activities for your particular community.  If your idea generates a good response, let us know so that we can share your event with other communities!

• Organize a “One Night Without a Home” awareness sleep out in front of city hall or on a nearby college campus.  (See the detailed description included later in this packet).

• Organize Oxfam America’s Fast for a World Harvest in your community to take place during the Awareness Week.  (See the detailed description included later in this packet).

• Host educational forums on hunger and homelessness.  Invite speakers, such as homeless persons to share their experiences, service providers and community speakers.  Show videos and distribute fact sheets or other informational material (refer to the National Coalition for the Homeless’ website: www.nationalhomeless.org).

• Register homeless and low-income people to vote.

• Have a booth where people can write to their Congresspersons about the importance of programs for homeless persons.  (See Bread for the World Offering of Letters description included in this packet).

• Designate one day for community members to skip a meal.  Instead of purchasing lunch that day, they can donate the money that they would have spent to hungry people in your community.

• Organize a drive to collect non-perishable items such as certain foods, hygiene products, clothing, blankets, books, and toys.  Involve the community organizations in a competition to see which group can collect the most donations.

• Organize a potluck dinner in which community members bring in a dish for themselves and three other persons.  Invite homeless persons as guests in order to encourage community interaction.  Remember to choose a neutral site for the dinner — a convenient place with no religious affiliation.

• Sponsor a benefit concert with local musicians.  Distribute information and donate collected money to a local shelter.

• Arrange a Community Service Day where people can volunteer at different local organizations and learn about their activities.  Suggested contacts: food pantries, homeless shelters, and soup kitchens.

All of these ideas leave a great deal of range for ingenuity.  Take one of these ideas and change it around some — brainstorm tactics that will add to the events you select for National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.

Hopefully, this Awareness Week will encourage people to become further involved with the issues of hunger and homelessness.  At the end of this packet, there is a list of homeless advocacy groups with whom people could work to continue their involvement.  These organizations, along with other ways for people to become more involved with this issue, should be advertised throughout Awareness Week.