1: What exactly is 25 in change?

A collaboration between groups of Advocates and their Partners to provide hungry children school meals, and decrease malnutrition world wide by changing how we eat, think, and live.

2: How does 25 in Change work?

Each Advocate commits to only eat a meal of rice and beans when a contribution of $25 is made by a Partner to provide 100 school meals to hungry children served by World Food Programme.  A group of 25 Advocates and their Partners are capable of providing almost 190,000 school meals for hungry children through Partners giving up fast food for 25 days and making a one-time only $25 contribution to provide 100 school meals .  In doing so, both the lives of Advocates and Partners are improved through the commitment to healthier eating habits, as well as the thousands of children who will eat because of their contributions. In order for each Advocate to eat three meals per day, a group of 25 Advocates each needs 1,875 Partners to sponsor them for one meal.

3: When I sponsor an Advocate for $25 how is my contribution spent?

100% of your contribution of $25 goes directly to the World Food Programme to provide 100 school meals for hungry children around the world. The money is specifically earmarked for the WFP School Meals Program where it provides hungry children school meals like rice and beans. Check out the program here .

4: Why are you only asking for $25?

We intend to provide a meaningful number of meals with each contribution made (about 100 meals), and we want to offer people the ability to make a contribution that reflects the seriousness of the commitment without breaking the bank.  While it might not seem like a lot to ask someone to only give up fast food for 25 days and provide the equivalent of $1 per day during that time, the change to our broken food system from this decision is significant and adds up.

5: Why do you only allow one person to contribute $25? What if I want to sponsor two different people?

Each $25 contribution is only half of what each Partner provides through 25 in change. All Partners also give up fast food for 25 days. If you wish to give more than $25, you’ll have to wait for the next group of 25 in Change to start. All we’re asking our Partners to do is change the world by contributing a one-time $25 contribution for each each of the 25 days they committed to give up fast food.  With 75 million Americans eating fast food daily, that could become a lot of money for fighting chronic hunger and obesity.

6: I’m a fan of what 25 in Change does. Can I make a donation directly to 25 in Change?

We appreciate that you are excited about what we do, but we do not accept general donations from the public. 25 in Change is funded exclusively by Advocates and Partners who have committed to changing the world through their own changed lives. We do not solicit donations from the public or the government for grants or hunt down major donors. We are seeking Advocates and Partners, not Donors. We do however encourage everyone to check out the future of farming at www.25farms.com.

7: Why do it for 25 days?

According to addiction experts, it takes anywhere between 2 weeks to 30 days to form or kick a habit. Over the course of 25 days, we equip Partners and Advocates to make healthier eating decisions which can provide enough life-giving food for everyone in the world.

8: Why do you exclusively support the World Food Programme?

While there are millions of Americans who are hungry, global hunger is different than American hunger. Hunger doesn’t kill people in America, but it does kill 14,000 children around the world every day. The World Food Programme is the leading school meal provider in the world, and has the most established infrastructure for providing food to hungry children. It also is one of the least expensive and most effective ways to end hunger in the world. 93% of all WFP funding is spent on food and food transportation, and 80% of the food which is distributed is bought in developing nations.  We exclusively support the WFP because no organization in the world does what they do better–and most do not even come close.  By having churches partner with the World Food Programme, our goal is to put a face to the issue of chronic hunger, and recognize our own unhealthy connection to food which is contributing to the obesity epidemic.

9: What sort of school meal does 25 cents provide a child?

School meal recipes are different around the world. They can be anything from to nutritious meals of rice and beans, to fortified breakfast porridge, to tamales. The WFP School Meals Program also provides deworming for students in order to maximize nutrient uptake. For families with school-aged girls, take-home food supplies are provided regularly if they send their daughters to school instead of having them stay home to help with housework or food production.  To learn more about how powerful your contribution is in the life of child head to the www.wfp.org.

10: Is 25 in change associated with the World Food Programme?

[dropcaps] A [/dropcaps] We are not associated with the World Food Programme, and we also do not receive any financial support from them.  We choose to partner with the World Food Programme because they are the most funded and equipped organization in the world to end chronic hunger.  However, we are surprised that religious institutions are not at the top of the list since they received over $95 billion in donations last year (while the WFP only received $4 billion).  The WFP estimates it would take about $3 billion dollars per year to feed all 66 million children who go to school hungry every year.  We believe churches across America are more than capable of faithfully living out the gospel to “take care of the least of these” and at least provide hungry children daily school meals. Advocates and Partners are regular people who just will not accept a world where children are dying of hunger while others are dying from eating too much.

11: How many Advocates are in each group?

The size of each group of Advocates varies with each round of 25 in Change. We like to see groups of 25 people advocate together, but the groups can be bigger or smaller than that. All Advocates share the sponsored meals in a common pool of partnerships that each individual Advocate recruits. It’s not easy, but 25 people is just the right amount for a task of this size. On average, each Advocate must recruit 75 Partners in order to eat three 16oz cups of rice and beans each day over 25 days.

12: What do advocates eat?

Our Advocates commit to eating the same type of school meals offered to hungry children who—without our help—would not have a nutritious meal that day.  Every meal is a total of 16 ounces of rice, beans, vegetable oil and iodized salt.  This is a real school meal recipe that the World Food Programme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo used to feed hungry children.  It isn’t very delicious all the time, but it is always nutritious. But we also require Advocates to take a daily complete multivitamin and drink lots of water.  100 school meals will be provided with each $25 donation from people who partner with Advocates. Our goal at the end of 25 days is for 25 Advocates along with their Partners to provide close to 200,000 school meals to hungry children.

13: What is 25 Farms?

25 Farms is a 21st century farm we launched in 2013 to sustainably provide neighborhoods in Denver with the freshest food possible. For $25, a family or individual received a home delivery of fruits and vegetables harvested and delivered the same day. 100% of net-profits from 25 Farms makes it possible for 25 in Change to give 100% of each donation it receives directly to the school meal program to feed hungry students.  If you live in the Denver area, we highly encourage you to give 25 Farms a try.

14: How healthy is it to eat these meals for 25 days straight?

Millions of people eat these meals every day around the world.  For instance, rice and beans is a common lunch in Brazil, and in Puerto Rico it’s part of their daily diet (the life expectancy in Puerto Rico is higher than the United States). Rice and beans (with oil and iodized salt) provides a complete protein diet in addition to providing fiber and iron. All Advocates take daily supplementary vitamins.  Each Advocate is screened for any health issues which would interfere with being a healthy Advocate for 25 days (diabetes, food allergies, history of Kidney Stones).

15: How many calories do Advocates eat daily?

If Advocates receive enough contributions to eat 3 times a day, they will each consume around 1,500 calories/day. They will also be taking a vitamin supplement to ensure a balanced nutrition throughout the 25 days.

16: What happens if Advocates do not get enough Partners to make $25 contributions?

All Advocates tie their fate for 25 days to the fate of hungry children receiving meals from the World Food Programme. If they don’t eat, we don’t eat. Trust us: we really want for everyone to eat.

17: Is this a hunger strike?

This is not a hunger strike, it is a strike against malnutrition. Our Advocates are doing more than giving up meals for 25 days; they are modeling an active faith and empathy through the simple decision about what to eat. Advocates act as real-life reminders of bigger-than-life needs—as agents of change for the billions of people impacted by the lack of access to life-giving food.

18: Why ask partners to give up fast food?

Changing the world is much easier than people think, and we plan on proving it. If all 75 million Americans who eat fast food daily decide to give up fast food and contribute only $1 per for 25 days to feed hungry children, not only would that provide $1.8 trillion dollars worth of food for those who suffer from chronic hunger (it would only take 1% of that whole amount to end global hunger), but it would also radically decrease the rate of obesity in America by getting Americans to start healthier eating habits.

19: How many people are hungry in the world right now?

Too many to count, but somewhere between 840 million and 1 billion people will go to bed hungry tonight.

20: How many people are overweight or obese right now?

About 2 billion adults are either overweight or obese. A recent study says that global obesity costs the world $2 trillion dollars a year to treat.

21: How many people die from hunger and obesity related causes?

Every day, hunger and obesity kill more people than AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria, war, murder, and natural disasters COMBINED. Also, chronic hunger is a major cause of worsening the symptoms of AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and is one of causes of conflict among food-insecure nations in Africa.

22: Why do you only partner with Churches?

We believe the Church is the most capable organization in the world to decrease preventable suffering from chronic hunger and obesity.  Last year Americans gave over $96 billion dollars to religious institutions. Experts believe it would only take 1/3 of that amount to end world hunger.   With the Bible mentioning the need to serve the poor over 2,000 times (with only the nature of God being mentioned more), we hope to equip churches to more effectively accomplish what they have been called to in the Bible (especially Matthew 25).

23: How can I get involved?

If you are 18 years or older and in good health, you can get involved with 25 in Change by being an Advocate at a church. If you want to start a group of 25 in Change, apply here. If you want to Partner, go to 25inchange.org and look for churches and  Advocates who are currently involved.

24: I have a food allergy, can I still join?

We encourage people with particular food allergies or other serious medical issues to consider participating in 25 in Change in ways other than advocacy. The success of each 25 in Change group depends on the support of thousands of people. Spread the word about 25 in Change through social media sites. By just eating healthier, you support a more sustainable food system which promotes healthier food for everyone.

25: When is the next round of 25 in Change?

We are currently accepting applications to be Advocates for February 2014.  We encourage you can apply here, and come together with us next year as we change how eat, think, and live.

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