Hunger No Game For Nearly a Billion Worldwide

Hundred of Thousands of American Teens Go Hungry to Raise Money and Hunger Awareness

World Vision's 30 Hour Famine April 27-28

SEATTLE, March 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As Americans flock to movie theatres across the nation for the much-anticipated Hunger Games motion picture release this weekend, more than one hundred thousand teens are preparing to go hungry to raise money and hunger awareness as part of World Vision's 30 Hour Famine, the largest teen hunger awareness campaign in the world. World Vision is an international Christian relief and development organization. While Hunger Games reflects a dystopian fantasy of a world without adequate food – in the real world, more than 850 million people will go hungry tonight.

But young people across America are doing something about it.

An estimated 150,000 teens will do 30 Hour Famine between now and April 27th, 28th. Teens forsake food for 30 hours to get a taste of what the world's poorest children face. Prior to the event, teens raise funds by explaining that $1 can help feed and care for a child a day. Teens consume only water and juice as they participate in local community service projects (food banks, soup kitchens and homeless shelters). Last year's 30 Hour Famine raised $9.5 million to fight hunger. This year's goal is $10 million.

Tonight, almost 900,000 people worldwide will go to bed hungry. Almost 22,000 children die each day from hunger and preventable diseases. Chronic poverty, affecting half the people on earth, is the cause. Nearly 3 billion people live on less than $2 a day. Funds raised this year for 30 Hour Famine will be sent to 10 countries including Haiti, the Horn of Africa, Burundi, Malawi, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Some 30 Hour Famine funds also address poverty here in the U.S.

Since 1992, 30 Hour Famine youth have raised more than $150 million dollars.
Info: www.30hourfamine.org or www.facebook.com/wv30HF or call 800-7-FAMINE.

Click here to make a general donation to the 30 Hour Famine.

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS:
Michele Tvedt - 30 Hour Famine National Manager – World Vision

Media Contacts: John Yeager 425-765-9845 (cell)   

About World Vision – World Vision is a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty.  World Vision serves the world's poor regardless of a person's religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.  World Vision works in 100 countries, helping approximately 100 million people every year. For more information, visit www.worldvision.org.

SOURCE World Vision U.S.