Hunger No Game for Nearly 1 Billion Worldwide

As Americans flock to movie theaters across the nation for the much-anticipated release of The Hunger Games motion picture this weekend, more than 100,000 teens are preparing to go hungry to raise money and hunger awareness as part of World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine, the largest teen hunger awareness campaign in the world.

While Hunger Games reflects a dystopian fantasy of a world without adequate food—in the real world, more than 850 million people will go hungry tonight. But young people across America are doing something about it.

An estimated 150,000 teens will do 30 Hour Famine between now and April 27 and 28. Teens forsake food for 30 hours to get a taste of what the world’s poorest children face. Prior to the event, teens raise funds by explaining that $1 can help feed and care for a child a day. Teens consume only water and juice as they participate in local community service projects (food banks, soup kitchens and homeless shelters). Last year’s 30 Hour Famine raised $9.5 million to fight hunger. This year’s goal is $10 million.

Tonight, almost 900,000 people worldwide will go to bed hungry. Almost 22,000 children die each day from hunger and preventable diseases. Chronic poverty, affecting half the people on earth, is the cause. Nearly 3 billion people live on less than $2 a day. Funds raised this year for 30 Hour Famine will be sent to 10 countries including Haiti, the Horn of Africa, Burundi, Malawi, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Some 30 Hour Famine funds also address poverty here in the U.S.

Since 1992, 30 Hour Famine youth have raised more than $150 million dollars.