Most anyone who grows up in the mid-west knows the saying, “knee high by the 4th of July.” It describes the average size of corn this time of year. The saying came to mind last weekend as I looked at my family’s backyard garden. We aren’t growing any corn, but our other plants are looking lively. They’re not full grown and ready to harvest yet, but it won’t be too much longer. Of  course it’s the same for all gardeners in this general latitude. And everyone knows what that means: zucchini, cucumbers, and tomatoes available for the taking in workplace kitchenettes, in church fellowship halls, from next door neighbors. So why is it that some are hungry at this time of year, when so many others have food to give away?

I recently spoke with Carol at an organization that’s trying to change that: AmpleHarvest. They are a national not-for-profit whose purpose is to connect gardeners who have excess produce with food pantries that can take it. Their website, AmpleHarvest.org, allows gardeners to search by location for nearby food pantries that accept fresh food. When I talked to Carol, she explained that they currently have almost 4000 food pantries registered… but there are some 30,000 in the U.S. So she asked if we could help with a couple of things:

1) If you are involved with a food pantry, ask them to register. It’s free, and all the panty has to do is fill out a short form on their website. The pantry can specify things like what types of produce they can accept, and what times of day or week they can take it. Since many of them don’t have refrigeration, this is important; they can’t store fresh food very long and may need people to pick it up fairly soon after they receive it.

2) If you are a gardener (or know someone who is), tell them about AmpleHarvest. Gardeners can go to the AmpleHarvest.org, enter their location, and see if there are any nearby pantries that will accept their surplus. (And the more pantries that register, the more luck gardeners will have using the site; see request 1.)

These seem like really simple yet helpful requests, so I pass them on to you. Please help! If you want to go a step further, the AmpleHarvest website has additional resources like fliers you can post at your local garden store. Together we can help ensure the bountiful harvest of summer and fall is eaten and not wasted.

-Nancy Michaelis

We all dream about it; at least I do anyway—a cause that brings the church together working as part of a whole to make the world a better a place. We dream about all members of the body of Christ serving God by serving others and seeing their faith rooted in that service. It is what the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America dreams about and acts out too.
We are on the precipice of living out that dream in a new way. In August at the Churchwide Assembly there will be a vote to move forward with the ELCA Malaria Campaign. With that vote every member of the ELCA, via their representatives, will be voting to be part of this campaign that will impact the world in a big way. The ELCA has a long heritage of combating malaria via companion churches in Africa and this $15 million campaign is a continuation of that heritage alongside the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Goal six specifically names malaria, along with Tuberculosis and HIV and AIDS, as a disease that needs to be contained. Therefore the ELCA Malaria campaign is part of a global movement that will reduce the number of deaths related to Malaria worldwide.
Recently at the churchwide offices in Chicago, members of the Malaria Campaign and other World Hunger staff picked the brains of various members of the ELCA who are knowledgeable about malaria and about ways to best spread the word about the campaign. During the Malaria Think Tank’s three days of intense discussion, the Malaria Campaign staff was blessed with fruitful and invaluable dialogue that will help the ELCA in all its expressions take on this endeavor.
The greatest hope from this meeting was that members of the ELCA will use this campaign as a way to go deeper in our faith and in our service to God and to our brothers and sisters around the world. Malaria is a complicated disease to wrap our minds around. It is easy to focus our entire understanding of malaria around bed nets. That’s what most people associate malaria relief with. While providing nets is part of the solution it will not, by itself, save lives. As ELCA members and synods go deeper in their understanding of Malaria and the mission of the Malaria Campaign they will see the bigger picture of malaria within the complex web of poverty. While this particular campaign will end in 2015, our struggle against hunger and poverty will not end. We will need more time and energy grounded in thoughtful discussion, education and prayer if we are to address in any meaningful way global poverty.
So let’s hear your opinions! What do you know about malaria and the ways to help fight it? What are your hopes and dreams for this campaign? How will you or your church or your synod be a public witness in your area? How will you take part in the Malaria Campaign? I can’t wait to hear from you!

God Bless! Karen

At the beginning of the fund-raising effort, mosquitoes "swarm" the sanctuary at Zion Lutheran Church, Marinette, WI.

800,000 people die every year of malaria. That’s more than 2,000 a day.

I’m proud to that our church– ELCA members, congregations and synods– is working together to overcome this devastating disease, and I wanted to share a story of one of the congregations that has done a great job raising awareness and raising funds for the ELCA Malaria Campaign.

Zion Lutheran Church in Marinette, WI started with some modest goals: to educate their congregation about the global realities of malaria and how they could help, and to raise $2,000 for ELCA Malaria Campaign projects in Africa.

Zion’s pastor, Keith Kolstad, had previously taken a sabbatical to Tanzania, where he experienced first-hand the devastating effects of malaria. One of the pastors he worked with, the chaplain at the cathedral in Dar Es Salaam, lost his 18-month-old daughter to malaria while Pr. Kolstad was there. Fueled by the certainty that even one such death is too many, the congregation at Zion got to work.

The congregation’s $2,000 goal was represented by two thousand mosquito symbols that were hung from the sanctuary ceiling.  The plan was to “rid” the building of one mosquito for each dollar that members and friends of Zion Lutheran Church contributed to the ELCA Malaria Campaign.

Well, the mosquitoes at Zion Lutheran Church have been eradicated, and then some.  Zion’s members responded to a critical need by giving $17,296.85… more than 8 times their goal! I’m inspired by the creativity and generosity of Zion’s members. I hope you will be, too.

~Jessica Nipp, ELCA Malaria Campaign