Poverty

Gaballi is just one of several discount food ministries that has stepped up to provide discount groceries since Angel Food Ministries shut down in September. What makes Gaballi unique, however, is that, in addition to providing food at a much more affordable rate, they also provide their members with the opportunity to earn free food.

Gaballi launched in September, and although its launch coincided with the closing of AFM, the company's CEO says it was just God's timing.

“It's almost like the day we started to promote was the day they were closed down,” said Colin Farnum, the company's CEO, in an interview with The Christian Post on Friday. Instead of selling food at wholesale costs to chain stores, which then mark up the prices to sell to consumers, Farnum says Gaballi buys products directly from farmers and sells directly to consumers. more >>

Hundreds of volunteers from across the country descended on New York City Friday in an effort to pack more than 5,000 shoe boxes with small Christmas gifts to send to some of the worlds neediest children.

The project, dubbed Operation Christmas Child, is an effort to place more than 8 million gift boxes in children’s hands worldwide this holiday season, organizers said.

“This is an opportunity to tell them that they haven’t been forgotten,” said Randy Riddle, the U.S. director for operations for the project. more >>

When Eugene Cho went to visit the country of Burma, he spent time traveling and visiting schools in the area. It was there he discovered, to his shock, the salary of a school teacher in those small towns and villages was roughly $40 a year.

Prior to his travels, Cho says in a video from his website, he knew all the statistics and numbers on poverty, but it wasn’t until he saw how far even $40 could go in the life of a school teacher that he began listening to “the stories behind the statistics.”

In 2009, he made a decision with his wife and three children, to donate their 2009 salary to help fight global poverty. Shortly thereafter, their organization, One Day’s Wages, was born. This month, they are celebrating their two year anniversary. more >>

Despite the president’s attempts to stall a decision allowing the construction of a TransCanada Keystone XL oil pipeline, Barack Obama is caught in a desperate position where he is being pressured to choose, sooner rather than later, between either jobs or the environment.

With the U.S. unemployment rate stuck at 9 percent, employment is set to become a key issue going into the 2012 election. Obama, who created the American Jobs Act, has traveled the country to promote job creation. However, there is one economic opportunity that his administration has tried to avoid: the TransCanada Keystone pipeline.

The company promises the 2,154-mile international tar sands pipeline extending from Alberta, Canada, to U.S. markets in Illinois, Nebraska and Oklahoma will create “more than $20 billion in new private sector investment in the U.S. economy” as well as create 20,000 construction jobs that will “generate $6.5 billion in new personal income.” more >>

Though a national poll suggests that a slim majority of evangelicals desire an equal distribution to solve the socioeconomic inequities plaguing many Americans, a national group clarified that evangelicals favor equality access to resources rather than wealth for the poor.

While few conservatives – only 38 percent of Republicans and 37 percent of Tea Party members-believe that people currently do not have an equal chance at achieving the American dream, evangelicals were evenly split over the issue and were more willing to consider wealth distribution according to a recently published survey.

According to the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey, 53 percent of white evangelicals agreed that society would be better off if the distribution of wealth was more equal. Only 35 percent of Republicans and 37 percent of Tea Party members agreed that society need a more equal distribution of wealth. more >>

Churches throughout the world will be celebrating Orphan Sunday this weekend, a campaign that originated in Zambia and honors children without parents, and adults that adopt or help orphans in many ways.

Church volunteers and ministries will be providing gifts to families with orphans, making resources available to those interested in adoption or helping, and delivering special Sunday sermons addressing the issue of orphans throughout the world. Organizers say events are planned in more than 45 states in the U.S.

“The day in itself is an honoring of what the Lord wants us to do. We are recognizing that we are talking a step of faith and listening to what God is truly calling people to do,” Vanessa Vasquez, national director of Orphan Sunday, told The Christian Post. “For some people that may be adopting, for other people that could be donating a monetary gift, it could be volunteering, or agreeing to be foster parents.” more >>