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	Teens from the Dioceses of Kansas and West Missouri served eggs, bacon and other items to clients participating in a Saturday morning breakfast program at St. Paul's, Kansas City, Kan., as part of MissionPalooza, an urban ministry program that took place July 11-16 in the greater Kansas City area. Photo by Melodie Woerman

Teenagers fight hunger, poverty at MissionPalooza

By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest

Dozens of teens from the Dioceses of Kansas and West Missouri joined forces to fight poverty in the Kansas City area during MissionPalooza, an urban mission experience for high school students sponsored by Episcopal Community Services that took place July 11-16.

Nearly 90 teens spent four days working at one of 17 sites across the metropolitan Kansas City area, with efforts that included building Habitat for Humanity houses and preparing meals for the homeless at the downtown Community Kitchen.

Students, grouped in fours and fives, worked on the same site throughout MissionPalooza and returned to their home base at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Kansas City, Mo., every evening for discussion and reflection on their experience. They were joined by more than two dozen adult volunteers who helped supervise work at the various locations.

Larger groups of youth came together on Saturday morning to assist with a breakfast program at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Kansas City, Kan., and to package food at the Harvesters warehouse in Kansas City, Mo.

The annual summer event also gave youth an introduction to the Millennium Development Goals and the “ONE Episcopalian” campaign, as ECS sought to link the teens’ work in local service agencies with the commitment of the Episcopal Church to fight extreme poverty through the MDGs.

Jay Lehnertz, executive director of Episcopal Community Services, said he wanted to give the youth a context that placed their service “within the framework of the Episcopal Church’s commitment to social justice.”

He said MissionPalooza participants were given “ONE Episcopalian” white wristbands to remind them of their service, and they also had the opportunity to sign a card pledging themselves to ongoing participation in efforts to fight poverty locally and globally.

Participation in the eight-pronged MDGs was affirmed during the 75th General Convention that met in June, when commitment to justice and peace issues was named the top mission and budget priority for the Episcopal Church in the coming three years.

Lehnertz said that roughly equal numbers of participants came from the two dioceses and that more than 30 percent were from outside the Kansas City area.