Friday, October 16th is World Food Day, which celebrates the day that Food and Agricultural Organization was founded in Quebec City in 1945. It is now observed annually in some 150 countries. Churches across Canada will do their part by joining together for Fast for Change. Organized by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, of which The Salvation Army is a member, Fast for Change is a day of fasting and reflecting on how we are connected to issues of food injustice and hunger.

Small changes are deceptively difficult. We always tell ourselves we'll get around to making them, downplaying their significance. Making a big change—ending hunger, for example—is really about imagining the impact of all of us making a few small changes. As Christians in a globalized world where extreme poverty and affluence coexist, we acknowledge our complicity and yearn for a balancing of the scales, so that each of us, everywhere, can receive our daily bread.

On October 16, fast from food however you can, in ways that fit with your personal health. Pray and reflect on how small changes in your daily life can have an impact on hungry people around the world, a path to living more simply so that others can simply live.

By participating in Fast for Change you will join with Christians all over Canada, united by our belief that hunger in a world of such abundance is a matter of injustice. We live in a world where climate changes and unfair trade policies affect the more than 900 million people who are chronically malnourished. The coexistence of abundance and abject poverty imply some changes are necessary to our daily life. As followers of Jesus, we are being called to respond in prayer and action.

To learn more, visit fastforchange.ca. Click here to download an information booklet or click the thumbnail below to view it online.