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Andy Morris is on a mission and he has one goal in mind: to get more people physically and spiritually engaged in the movement to end hunger. Morris, a long-time Stop Hunger Now volunteer, is one of the driving forces that helped build a foundation of support to open our Nashville location in 2016. He’s passionate about ending hunger, and he’s putting his energy into a new nonprofit called FastPrayGive.org that will raise funds to support Stop Hunger Now meal packaging events.

“There is a significant number of people in this world fighting hunger. There is an insignificant number of people working together,” said Morris. Morris said he wants to get more people involved and make them feel like they’re part of a global movement.

FastPrayGive.org Andy Morris 2016

Morris is helping lead the start-up of FastPrayGive.org, which is affiliated with the World Methodist Council. It will initially partner with Stop Hunger Now, and eventually support other organizations fighting world hunger. The Rev. Steve Hickle, Stop Hunger Now’s Director of Faith Outreach and one of the organizers who is helping launch the program, explains how it works: “It encourages volunteers to fast one meal a week, pray about hunger in our world, and give a donation comparable to what they would have spent on that one meal.” Hickle explains that the funds raised help subsidize events with congregations that haven’t hosted a Stop Hunger Now event before. “We share a hope that more and more faith communities will be stirred to join the movement to end hunger.”

While Stop Hunger Now is not a faith-based organization, our roots are connected to the United Methodist Church. In 1988, we were founded by United Methodist Minister Ray Buchanan, and a significant portion of our meal packaging events are hosted by a wide range of faith-based organizations. Buchanan was part of the group of world Methodists who hatched the idea for the program several years ago.

FastPrayGive.org 2016

“FastPrayGive.org is a movement of the spirit that will galvanize the Global Methodist family to help end world hunger,” stated Bishop Ivan Abrahams, General Secretary of the World Methodist Council. The member churches of the World Methodist Council, made up of churches that grew from the Methodist Movement, has a large potential base of support to help grow the movement to end hunger with 80 million members worldwide. It is not limited to Methodists; their goal is to grow the initiative and engage people of all faiths.

The program is being launched at the World Methodist Conference in Houston, Texas this August. “My goal is to walk away from the conference with lots of people signed up,” said Morris. “I want to create a financial and spiritual tsunami.”

Stop Hunger Now is working with groups like the United Methodist Church to grow the movement and help make the United Nations “Zero Hunger” goal a reality by the year 2030. It’s people like Andy Morris who are engaging communities and building momentum to reach this goal.

Shared in Blog, Growing the Movement