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Meal Two - West Bank

Spotlight on the West Bank

Region: Middle East (Palestine)
Population: 2,514,845
Life expectancy at birth: 74.78 years
Population below poverty line: 46%
Literacy rate: 92.4%

Printable Table Tent

Download and print this table tent, designed for the Middle East meal. This table tent includes conversation starters and information about your gifts to ELCA World Hunger in action.
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Placemats

Download, print and use different placemats during your Lenten meals to raise awareness about hunger, poverty and related issues.

Program

This 30-minute program, specifically designed for the West Bank meal, contains a reading, litany, monologue, prayers and discussion questions.

Table Prayer

Try this traditional prayer from the West Bank before the meal: With God's name and upon the blessings granted by God do we eat.
After the meal: All praise is due to God who gave us food and drink.

Story: Lydia
In 1984, Lydia Mansour felt called to begin a ministry to visually impaired Palestinian women. Lydia, herself visually impaired, knows firsthand how women and girls with disabilities are often challenged by double discrimination for their disability and gender…Read the full story.

Download and print this story to share at the meal.
Download this story: PDF | DOC

Local Recipes

Popular foods in the Middle East include pita, hummus, shorbat adas (lentil soup), Arabic salad (cucumbers, tomatoes and onions in lemon juice), rooz ma lahem (rice with meat). Find these recipes and more at http://www.food.com/recipes/palestinian.

Skip the Coffee. Feed the Hungry.

Many are familiar with the tradition of giving something up during Lent. Last year, Pastor Steve Biegner of Zion Lutheran Church in Clarence Center, N.Y., decided to add something to his Lenten tradition. For 40 days, he stopped drinking coffee. And in its place, he gave whatever money he normally spent to support ELCA World Hunger.

“What does giving up coffee have to do with my relationship with God?” Pastor Steve asked. “Nothing. But focusing on the problem of hunger does. It helps ‘enlighten my eye’ to the ongoing problem.”

He placed a large, empty pickle jar outside the sanctuary of his church and asked others to join him. Each day, members of the congregation would sacrifice their favorite morning beverage and save the money they would have spent. By Easter Sunday, the pickle jar was full of donations to help end hunger and poverty.