GRAN's Child Hunger campaign aims to raise public awareness and support for action. Educating the public is crucial to mobilizing the power of public opinion and influencing the political will of decision makers. We envisage GRANs organizing speakers forums, rallies, and public learning events, sharing social media posts, writing newspaper articles, and initiating conversations at gatherings with friends, community networks, and colleagues. Public education can target one person or a hundred. You can decide how wide a circle you want to influence -- a coffee group? a book club? FB friends? a G2G group? a congregation? a town? a city? Below you will find a menu of ideas to start you thinking about how you might reach out to your community.
- Organize a public event at your local library or community centre: show a movie or video with discussion afterwards; invite a guest speaker or host a panel discussion with experts available in your community.
- Hold a book club meeting using a book on child nutrition or world hunger. (GRAN can make some recommendations.)
- Ask to have an info table at your local library or farmers market or Christmas craft fair. Use GRAN materials to raise awareness.
- Ask to speak to one of your local community groups (seniors’ group, service club, church, elementary or high school, etc.). Get people talking and asking questions about the issues.
- Share GRAN Small Sips with your friends, on your FB or Twitter feed; print them off to use as handouts at public events.
- Incorporate the theme of Child Hunger into your group's Orange Campaign education efforts. (GRAN will be sending out a Small Sip on the relationship between child hunger and violence against children which you will be able to use.)
- Write a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper or an article for the newsletter of an organization you belong to. Use the information in one of the Small Sips for your main points.
- Launch a community art project at a local school or public library: ask children to draw pictures of what "hungry" means to them or invite local artists to create and donate works for an art exhibit on child hunger.
- Connect with organizations in your community that are doing work on child hunger. Find ways to collaborate to raise awareness of both local and global child hunger.
We'd love to hear from you to learn what you are doing in your community to raise awareness on Child Hunger. Get in touch with us at info@grandmothersadvocacy.org .
