Last weekend, for 30 consecutive hours -- after lunch Friday till 6 p.m. Saturday -- four youth at St. Paul's United Methodist Church joined more than half a million American teens by not letting a single morsel of food pass between their lips.

In the end, they were famished, yet satisfied, tasting what the world's poorest children and families face everyday as part of World Vision's 16th annual 30-Hour Famine.

"The 30-Hour Famine has a lasting impact, not just on the children receiving food, care and education, but on participants who view their own potential to affect change very differently afterward," said Debbie Diederich, national director of the World Vision 30-Hour Famine.

Since its beginnings in 1992, the 30-Hour Famine has raised more than $80 million. Last year, it raised $11.6 million to battle world hunger, and this year's goal was $12 million. World Vision, a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to tackling the causes of poverty worldwide, works in 100 countries and helps approximately 100 million people annually.

During the famine, participants gather as groups and consume nothing but liquid drinks and focus on helping strengthen their communities. Participants also raise money for World Vision's efforts.

"When I hear or think of the word famine, I usually think of the words either cold or hungry," said Taylor Dawkins, a seventh-grade student at Orangeburg Preparatory School. "When I talked to my friends, they would say that I was crazy having no food for 30 hours and sleeping in boxes outside the preacher's yard."

But Dawkins said she learned quite a bit about being homeless and hungry through her experience last weekend. In addition to sleeping in refrigerator boxes, the youth also performed a public service for the Samaritan House, painting an outside wall at the shelter.

"I will never forget this experience," she said. "I will definitely look at homeless people in a very different way."

OPS eighth-grader Matthew Crisp said participating in the 30-hour famine made him realize the enormity of the hunger issue.

"Being homeless is hard and cold," he said. "Today's world is so dependent on various material things, and it's so pathetic when you think about it. I'm never going to look at homeless people the same way again because, in a sense, I've been there."

Emily Shirer described the experience as "fun, freezing, tiring" -- and one she, too, will not soon forget.

"It also made me feel good to have helped out," the OPS seventh grader said. "After finding out for myself what it was like to be a homeless person, I have much more respect for them."

Karrie Rector, director of youth, children and education ministries at St. Paul's UMC; chaperone Dan McGannon; and the group shared their weekend experience with the church at Sunday's morning service, collecting an offering to send to World Vision.

According to a press release from World Vision, an estimated 852 million people around the world don't have enough to eat, and a root cause of that hunger is chronic poverty, which affects half of the world's population. Nearly three billion people live on less than $2 a day, and annually, more than 10 million children under age 5 die from disease and malnutrition as a result of hunger.

"It was a real experience going 30 hours without food and sleeping in refrigerator boxes, and I'm glad we're making a difference in the world," said OPS seventh grader Benjamin Cooper. "The next time you throw food away or over-indulge, I hope you'll think of all the starving people around the world. I know I will."

For more information on World Vision or the 30-Hour Famine, visit www.worldvision.org.

T&D Staff Writer Wendy Jeffcoat Crider can be reached by e-mail at wjeffcoat@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5546. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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