Unto Launches Campaign to Feed 1 Million Meals to Children This Summer
The Cru Ministry will partner with in-country staff and local pastors to distribute meals in 10 countries
Unto, Cru’s international humanitarian ministry, has initiated a fundraising campaign to feed over one million meals to hungry children in 10 countries around the world this summer.
Photo by Victor Nnakwe via Unsplash
According to a fundraising campaign email, contributions of less than $1 per day will “provide three meals to someone facing starvation.” A gift of $99 will provide 330 meals.
In addition to feeding those in need, Unto hopes to share the “message of Jesus with those who might otherwise be unreachable.”
The current meal fundraising campaign began just this week, Cru spokesperson Karen Dye explained to MinistryWatch, and has raised just over $12,000 at the time of publication.
The goal is to raise about $300,000 to provide one million meals, and all contributions given through the fundraising effort link will go directly toward providing meals, not to a general fund. Additional funds raised above the $300,000 will be used toward meal shipments starting in September, Dye said.
The meals will be distributed in Zambia, Liberia, and Suriname, but Unto did not provide a list of all 10 countries where it plans to distribute meals “due to safety concerns for [their] in-country partners.”
The majority of Unto’s projects are carried out through in-country Cru staff members. However, in some cases, it partners with local pastors or Christian workers who are vetted before being allowed to participate in a project, Dye explained.
Before committing to a project financially, Unto conducts an assessment to identify the “most impactful humanitarian interventions.” Evaluation criteria includes number of people who would benefit, food insecurity data, accessibility to local staff for follow-up, and the spiritual needs of the people.
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Once a project is approved in a country, the local Cru staff and partners receive food shipments and personally deliver them to intended recipients. Meals are often distributed in schools, orphanages, hospitals, or food-insecure communities, Dye explained.
Before 2020, Unto was known in the United States as the Global Aid Network. It was founded to provide needed supplies after the fall of the Soviet Union as Operation Carelift.
While it still uses the Global Aid Network name in many international efforts, it changed its name in the U.S. for clarity.
“In digital communication we could not clearly state our connection to Cru® and our work advancing the gospel. Some international partners found our association with Cru to be an obstacle for them — as they are dependent on governmental funding or they were concerned about risking their non-profit status,” the Unto website explains about the name change.
While providing meals is a “central ministry effort,” Unto also works in two other areas: clean water and critical aid.
In the MinistryWatch database, Cru earns a 3-star financial efficiency rating, a “C” transparency grade, and a donor confidence score of 73. We do not have a separate database entry for Unto. It does make independently audited financial reports available on its website.
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