There are soup kitchens. And then there's this.

I opened an email several days too late and so am announcing the 2006 National Famine Dates only now. Anyway, only the first (Feb. 24-25) is over; the second National Famine Date is April 28-29.

Here's part of the email I got from CitizenLink:

Thousands of Teens to Participate in 30-Hour Famine

from staff reports

Effort to raise money for the poor.

More than 600,000 teens in the U.S. are planning to go without food for 30 hours this weekend. It’s called the "30-Hour Famine" and it challenges teenagers to walk a mile in the shoes of the hungry, and raise money to feed those who are less fortunate.

Debbie Diederich with World Vision said 29,000 children die every day from hunger and related diseases. The 30-Hour Famine teaches teenagers what it’s like to go without food.

“These kids," she said, "who are usually thinking about things like dances or proms or football games or buying a new pair of jeans, spend 30 hours getting hungry and thinking about what life is really like for most of the people in the world (and) that most people don’t have the luxuries they do.”

Patty Ehmann, a youth leader at a Colorado church, said the 30-Hour Famines that she has led in the past were bonding experiences for teens. She said teens can do many significant things when their focus is on others.

“We went on a can drive through neighborhoods," she said. "We cleaned up certain areas of ground, they built their huts out of cardboard boxes that they were to spend the night in, out in the cold.”

Know more from the 30-hour famine website and get to read real stories written by those who have participated in the program that benefits the people of Niger, Sudan and Kenya.