Saturday, September 27, 2008

It's a FEED invasion! Ahhhh!

Whewww! We are exhausted beyond measure. But for a good reason, this morning Kelly, some friends of mine, my sister and I went and hung up more posters today. We went insane! We hit some stores on Memorial, we hit just about every store in The Oaks shopping plaza where Five Guys Burgers, 2 cute, and Moes and all that stuff is. We hit the Avenue( Thanks Caroline!), some stores on Broad Street; basically guys we almost got M'Boro covered! Go out today or later maybe to the Avenue or Moe's and check out the posters in their windows. I can't believe how many stores let us put up posters, it's all about asking. We thought for sure some stores wouldn't let us but we went in anyway and they were some of the most willing people. You never know if you don't ask! But there are still some more places we need to go and we still need some more help. I don't want you to be able to go anywhere and not see a FEED poster. So, whenever we go out to post more we'll make sure you know and then it's up to you to come to help. We're expecting a lotta people and some vendors at the walk/run so make sure you're there, walking or running or helping in some way!
A.G.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Downtown M'Boro is covered!

Yayyyyyy!!! I'm so excited and happy right now ya'll! My sister and a friend of mine went downtown today and hung up FEED posters like crazy! Almost every store down there took one and only about 2 or 3 didn't. I can't believe how willing they were to hang up our posters! It took us about an hour and a half, but that was because there were only 3 of us. I bet if we had say, 10 or 15 people we could get this town literally dipped in posters! I want to thank everybody who let us put up posters in their store, you don't know how much you've helped just by hanging a poster. It's important to get the word out! At a law office we went into we talked w/the receptionist and she seemed really interested in what we were doing. So I gave her the whole spill about how we were raising $50,000 for Africa, how we wanted to do something for our own community, and how the food drive was to honor the 6 miles that the average African family has to walk each day just to get filthy water etc. and on top of all that how we were just 5 students doing this. She was shocked! Her mouth was wide open and she had tears in her eyes. She has made my day, and as a bonus she took a few more posters to take to some other business she knows and shops at, it was really awesome. So, tomorrow I think we're gonna go hang up some more posters probably down Memorial Blvd. and I need your help because obviously it's gonna take more than 3 people. I'll try and get the times and meeting place blogged up later. Please come and help only if it's for 15 minutes!
-A.G.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Just one more reason to be on time!

Ok so this morning was super crazy! We were scheduled to present for Blackman's FCA and Kelly was running a little late, well more like 15 minutes late( she overslept). So I call her to wake her up and she's like, "Oh my gosh! I overslept!". We're on our way to Blackman trying to get in touch with people to let them know we'll be late, but no one picks up (answer your phones people!). We decide in the car that we wont present we'll just pass out the posters and cards and encourage them to come to our events. As we pull up to Blackman we can't really find a parking spot so we end up parking like in some deserted lot behind the gym. We run, literally run across the parking lot into the school and realize that, 1. We didn't really sign in, so yeah we broke in and out of Blackman, and 2. We don't know where the heck FCA is even meeting! Quickly Kelly asks an awesome student who seemed just ecstatic to be at school that morning where they met and thankfully it was just straight ahead. We dash into the room and right into their closing prayer! We both hit our breaks and took the moment to catch our breaths. We apologized and kind of stood there looking like idiots, thankfully Kalen Johnson snapped some sense into us and told us we could still pass out the rave cards. No one seemed too mad at us and Kalen( aka Super Kalen!) had already explained to them what we were doing w/the run/walk and the food drive. So, that's how we broke into Blackman, busted in on FCA's prayer and cut a few people off in traffic, all before 8:30 in the morning! It's all for FEED people; all for FEED!
-A.G.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

NVBC Youth & AWANA Presentations!





FEED '08 has 25 days left!!!


Tonight was a great experience for FEED to spread excitement amongst our church family at New Vision. The high school and middle school services were focused on FEED, including watching the brand new World Vision video that displays intense sights of young children and babies that are literally wasting away while I type. This is a video that shows the recently announced GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS that is taking our world by storm. FEED has become that much more important now that we are even more aware of the immense need. We had 2 awesome students from the youth group get up and present some startling statistics about our world and the need out there. After every student shared a statistic, the statement was consistently shared, "WITH YOUR HELP, WE CAN CHANGE THE WORLD. LET THE FEED MOVEMENT BEGIN." This is what FEED is about. We cannot let this opportunity slip through our fingers. We have thousands of dollars left to raise to make our goal, but more importantly than that, there are so many more people in our community that I know would love to get involved in FEED. SPREAD THE WORD! We have posters available, rave/info cards, press releases, donation request forms, Run/Walk sponsor forms, etc!!! Please ask any of the FEED team, Jeremy Lee, Brian Owen, or really anyone to see what YOU can do to join in with us!

Also, tonight we had the honor of speaking in front of hundreds of children in the AWANA's program at New Vision. Aaron had an enamored crowd of kids that he proceeded to pump up with excitement about joining the FEED movement. They were all given a can of food with the FEED logo on it and the note to bring canned goods back next week! They are going to be kick-starting our FEED food drive that will begin officially on October 11th! AWANA children's parents, we LOVE the excitement and energy your kids are bringing to FEED, and we hope you will encourage them in getting involved and being a part of each and every activity we will be doing on October 18th and 19th! We need your support as well!!!

Thank you so much to everyone for all the hard work and sacrifices you have made for FEED. God is all over this project, and I know He's going to blow us all away with the next 2 1/2 weeks we have left for FEED '08. Blessings to all!

~Kelly

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Flying solo!

Hey just a little update! Tomorrow at 1pm FEED will be presenting for Webb School in Bell Buckle. Unfortunately only I(Amaris) will be able to make it beacause the others have school. So please pray for me, I'm pretty nervous because I've never had to present w/o the others. But many verses have come to my mind these past few days including; 1 Timothy 4:12, Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
And Philippians 4:13, I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.
I've known the verse in Philippians since I was a lil munchkin but I've never really had to apply it in my life, so It's really cool to remember that verse and then look back and see, hey, memorizing verses really is important! Who knew?Even thought the others wont be with me and I know they'll be praying for me, it's really nice to know that God will be with me, He has always been and He will always be.
-A.G.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Todd Agnew!!


Todd Agnew's Promotional photos!

New Logos




Check it out!

Friday, September 19, 2008

FEED loves BHS!

Hey ya'll earlier this morning we presented at Blackman and it went great. They were really open to listening and we just hope we left them w/the passion to get out and change their world. It was awesome! Thank you to all of you who were there, we appreciate your time and your attention!
-A.G.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Chewing gum

Well just a lil heads up, tomorrow we go to present for First Priority at BHS(woohoo!) and we're very excited about that so if ya'll could just keep us in your prayers that would be awesome. Keep up the tremendous job you guys are already doing. We seriously wanna see your facebook and/or myspace page profile pictures replaced with one of the 3 different FEED "logos". It's only for a little while and seriously guys, I mean come on, these aren't some dry, boring looking logos. These are awesome and we did that for a reason. So use like 'em like crazy! As soon as we get the posters in which should be very soon I hope(I'm crossing my fingers for tomorrow) I'll let ya'll know cause I know you are psyched about helping spread those out.
-A.G.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

GO! Student Ministry rocks!



I just wanted ya'll to see a picture of how our own student ministry is giving their own money and time to support not, only FEED, but countries across the world that they have never even been to! I know we've said it multiple times but I feel like we could never thank you guys enough. All the support is so overwhelming for us and we appreciate how passionate you guys are about this. I am starting to realize that FEED is not just 5 students anymore, but it is also 200+ teenagers from New Vision who share our same dream. We are depending on you guys, keep up the awesome work. Keep filling those jugs and whatever you do, never underestimate the power of God through you, because with Him you can actually(go figure)! change your world! P.S. Go girls, we can do it, I wanna see those totals continuing to rise! Let's show those guys just how much competition we've got in our blood!
-Amaris

Friday, September 12, 2008

Media Opportunities


Ok so since we are getting so close to the big weekend its about time we kicked it into high gear and spread the word. With the connections I have made overe the past few years I am glad to say you could possibly be seeing the FEED team and everything that we are doing on a local news cast. As soon as we get our media press release done we will submit it to the news stations in Nashville such as Fox 17, channel 4, 5, and possibly 2. We are also hoping to have articles in the DNJ here in Murfreesboro as well as the Tennessean. This is something that we are very hopeful will happen and with everything that God has done for us so far in this long journey it just might happen.

Adam

World Vision's Emergency Meeting: GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS
















Here we are honored to be taking a picture with the amazing Christian music artists, CeCe Winans and Margaret Becker! Although we were ecstatic to be meeting artists, label people, managers, etc., the topic at hand was the GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS; what a heartbreaking reality that the information, videos, and testimonies described. This meeting opened our eyes to the EXTREME IMPORTANCE of the work we have been doing and plan to continue doing in these last few weeks of this project. Remember though, FEED does not end October 19th at the end of our concert. It will continue for years to come- as a movement of justice and love and faith- and our passion to help save the millions suffering in the world around us will continue forever. Join with FEED to spread awareness about global poverty and ignite action against world hunger. We are just 5 students...but we ARE changing the world.

The man behind our posters...

Hey I just wanted to make a shout-out to Indie.bling who created our awesome posters,cards, event flyers, and especially our super awesome logo. We couldn't have done it better even if we tried. Mr. bling.(haha) has done a tremendous job in supporting us and we are so grateful for him. I haven't seen anyone do what he does with such a passion and talent, he is super-duper awesome! THANKS!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

World Visions Release on Food Crisis


Hey guys and gals,

Many of you know we are partnering with World Vision to feed the hungry in South Africa, well we had a chance to sit in on a press conference at World Vision discussing the food crisis and we wanted to give you an idea of what's going on with other countries.

www.worldvision.org

Fact sheet on hunger and the global food crisis
More than 800 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition, and World Vision is committed to raising increased resources  public and private  to overcome this tragedy. Food aid and development assistance are key tools to fight hunger and the food insecurity that causes chronic or emergency shortages of nutrition around the world.

Scale of the problem

  • Since 2005, the world has experienced a dramatic surge in the price of many staple food commodities. The price of maize increased by 80 percent between 2005 and 2007, and has since risen further. Many other commodity prices also rose sharply over this period: milk powder by 90 percent, wheat by 70 percent and rice by about 25 percent. (World Bank)
  • These grains are a staple of diets in much of the developing world. In low-income Asian countries, grains account for 63 percent of the average diet. In North Africa and 11 former Soviet republics, grains account for about 60 percent. In sub-Saharan Africa, the region most vulnerable to food insecurity, grains compose nearly half of the calories consumed. The share of grains in the diet is lowest  about 43 percent  in lower-income Latin America. (USDA)
  • The poorest people spend roughly three quarters of their incomes on staple foods. (World Bank)
  • Food riots have broken out in Haiti, Morocco, Yemen, Mexico, Guinea, Mauritania, Senegal and Uzbekistan. (The Guardian)
  • Food crop prices are expected to remain high in 2008 and 2009 and then begin to decline as supply and demand respond to high prices; however, they are likely to remain well above the 2004 levels through 2015 for most food crops. (World Bank)

Impact on children

  • Rising prices make millions of children more vulnerable to malnutrition, impaired growth and lack of education.
  • Malnutrition is an underlying cause of half of the nearly 10 million deaths of children under 5 each year worldwide. It makes them more prone to, and likely to die from, diseases like pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and measles.
  • Severe malnutrition in early childhood can also impair brain development and lead to stunted growth, which affects some 178 million pre-schoolers in developing countries.
  • Rising food prices also risk derailing recent gains in reducing malnutrition. Between 1990 and 2005, the share of children under 5 with moderate and severe stunting fell from 33.5 percent worldwide to 24.1 percent. Food prices are not the main driver of malnutrition. However, to compensate for rising food prices, vulnerable households may purchase less food, or cheaper, but less nutritious, food. (World Bank)
  • Malnourished women are more likely to be sick, have smaller babies and die earlier, resulting in high levels of infant mortality in areas where chronic hunger is a problem.

Impact on World Vision programs

  • World Vision staff have seen access to food  and poor families’ ability to afford basic staples  deteriorate more rapidly in recent months as prices escalated in many communities where we work, for example in Haiti and Senegal.
  • Food aid programs will continue to be affected by the new food prices.
  • Humanitarian groups may have to substitute more expensive nutrient-fortified foods with cheaper, less nutritional bulk foods.
  • Aid groups may have to reduce the geographical areas they serve with food and cut back on beneficiaries.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Todd Agnew and Russ Lee agree to perform October 18 and 19 for FEED CELEBRATION



Recording artists Russ Lee and Todd Agnew have agreed to donate their time to perform at our celebration event on October 18 and 19! Can you believe that? 

Russ Lee will be performing Saturday Night, October 18 at New Vision Baptist Church at 6:45 pm

Todd Agnew will perform Sunday Morning, October 19 at New Vision Baptist Church at 8:00 am, 9:30 am, and 11:00 am.

CeCe Winans supports FEED team during press conference!

On August 20th the FEED team was invited to participate in a press conference to get the word out about the Food Shortage Crisis around the world.  We were honored to meet many music artists, but we were blown away when CeCe Winans showed her support telling reporters about our cause.  THANK YOU CECE!

Presentation at Third Baptist Church and Bluegrass Baptist Church




Last month we made a presentation to two churches. Third Baptist Church let us do our presentation for their student leadership team. They offered to help us get the word out in the community. Also, we drove to Hendersonville, TN to present to Bluegrass Baptist Church. They were very supportive and offered to bring a group out to participate in our 6 mile Walk/Run on October 18th!

Presentation at Blackman High School


We are presenting at Blackman High School to the Timothy Club and the First Priority Club. We will let you know how it goes!

More than 852 million people in the world are malnourished - 799 million of them are from the developing world. More than 153 million of them are under the age of 5.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Crunch time!

Ok ya'll, I can't believe how excited I am about this. We just met w/ our youth minsters Brian and Jeremy and they have just encouraged us so much! It's amazing what God can do through 2 people. So, it's crunch time... like for real! We need your help now more than ever, just getting the word out about the food drive and the run/walk will help tremendously. And whenever we go out to hang up the awesome posters that we recently got made(thank you indie.bling!) I'll try to blog it up the day before or whatever so if you would like to join us and help, that would be an enormous amount of help! And any ideas you might have, businesses we can present for, ways we can advertise, or even just something as simple as telling you friends about what we're doing will make a difference. Now is the time, let's get this thing done right!
-Amaris

Thursday, September 4, 2008

CoMiNg SoOn!!!



Hey EVERYONE! I need YOU!

OCTOBER 11TH, 2008 kicks off our food drive for Greenhouse Ministries in Murfreesboro, TN.
1. We need volunteers to take bags to their neighbors, friends,
businesses, etc.

OCTOBER 18TH can be considered a FEED MARATHON!
1. 8-11am: 6-mile RUN/WALK for FEED- this will be an awesome
event that you can support FEED by getting financial sponsors
for every mile you walk or run!
2. FEED food drive pick up following the Run/Walk- volunteers
needed to pick up the bags you dropped off!
3. 6pm: FEED benefit concert/celebration worship service- come
hear great music, worship, learn about global poverty, World
Vision, and see what God has done through FEED to save
thousands of lives!

OCTOBER 19TH is IT!
1. FEED Benefit Concert with Todd Agnew!!!
-Come celebrate the FEED movement, learn more about
poverty and World Vision, and worship with Christian artist,
Todd Agnew!

A $300 Blessing!!!


Hello Everyone!
God has blessed us with friends that want to support by sharing what FEED is about. One of those special friends is Jessica P. Jessica has been passing on the FEED movement to those around her, and by God's grace, she has recruited an anonymous giver who has donated $300 to FEED!!! We are blessed by all of you who have joined with us on this great journey to see God change the world. Thank you so much, Jessica, for supporting FEED, and for giving us hope that we can reach our goal.