Tackling hunger stitch by stitch

Laura Butterworth on how making crafts inspired her and her friends to tackle global hunger.

Our craft group started as an excuse to drink wine and hang out, but we have had many achievements: Lucy knitted her first scarf, Anja made beautiful monochrome slippers, Kris taught us how to crochet, and we contributed to ending world hunger.

Jigsaw warriors

As caring, social-justice-seeking, change-the world types, the imapiece project, which supports Save the Children’s Race Against Hunger campaign, was right up our alley.

We all got into making the jigsaw pieces, chatting about the slogans we chose and talking about what a world free of hunger and injustice would look like.

It was a perfect project for a craft night as the jigsaw pieces were so quick and easy to finish.

Taking it to the top

None of us had ever met our MP, but we decided we really wanted to share our passion for the imapiece campaign with the person responsible for representing us in parliament.

Having worked out who that person was (!), we sent an email to Meg Hiller requesting a meeting to give her the jigsaw pieces we had made.

Meeting our MP

One morning before work, Sarah, Lucy and I went along to Hackney town hall, jigsaw pieces in hand, ready to meet our MP and urge her to support the Race Against Hunger campaign.

I’ll admit I was a bit nervous; I was worried I wouldn’t know what to say, or that Meg might ask us a question we didn’t have the answer to, or point out how amateur our stitching was!

But it was a great meeting, Meg loved the jigsaw pieces and it turns out she’s an avid crafter herself.

She was super down to earth, and having craft in common made it easy to chat and relate to each other.

Global connections

We discussed why we loved living in a multi-cultural community, the vibrant celebrations, the variety of food, the availability of beautiful fabrics and the constant connect to the rest of the world.

Living in Hackney means we cannot ignore global problems: a hungry child anywhere effects us all, our neighbours, our friends and our families.

What a result!

Meg agreed to write to David Cameron asking him to ensure that at the G8 hunger summit this year the voice of our community is heard and leaders commit to ending world hunger.

The meeting gave us such a buzz! We felt a real sense of accomplishment.

Meg seemed to enjoy the meeting too.

She said: “Even in an area of deprivation like Hackney, we know there are bigger challenges around the world. It’s important that we press our leaders to act against hunger globally.”

Since then Meg has kept us informed about her correspondence with David Cameron.

We all felt that engaging in political processes in a personal way is really empowering.

Turns out our craft nights are not just a good excuse for drinking wine, they also tackle global injustice!

Sign Save the Children’s petition urging David Cameron to use the G8 summit to tackle the issue of world hunger and save millions of children’s lives.