SOUL FOOD:

In the United States, 7.6 million families lived in poverty during 2007. For 4% of families living in the U.S. hunger is a persistent problem.

Americans carry a total of $2.56 trillion of consumer debt. Half a trillion was spent on Christmas purchases last year. The average credit card holder is $1,673 behind in payments.

And during what we call the holiday season, our landfills take on an extra 1 million tons of household waste each week.

The folks putting on the Alternative Christmas Market at St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church and the Colman Mall at Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church hope to change all those statistics this year — and more.

The slogan this year for the market at St. Wilfrid is “Let’s buy half as much and give twice as much.” It will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday at 18631 Chapel Lane, Huntington Beach.

In its beginnings 10 years ago, the market still sold some tangibles like hats and T-shirts to promote various charities.

“Then we decided we wanted to take it one step further and not sell any stuff,” the chairwoman of the market, Mary Lou Hughes, told me last week.

“We recognize that we live in a world of have and have-nots and we’re the haves,” said Hughes, who also said the church puts great emphasis on Jesus’ commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself.

This year the market will feature five charities: an Angel Tree for Beach Cities Interfaith Services in Huntington Beach; Habitat for Humanity’s Homes for Heroes (benefiting veterans); the Heifer Project; the Free Wheelchair Mission of Orange County and St. Wilfrid’s own The Tanzania Group.

With the exception of the Angel Tree, when shoppers make a donation to any of these causes they receive a card to give to the person the donation is meant to honor.

These gifts, said Hughes, are gifts of hope and new life.

The Angel Tree will provide Christmas gifts for children in families receiving social services from BCIS.

Shoppers can also choose a blue or pink tag from the Angel Tree representing a boy or a girl.

An age will also be on the tag to guide shoppers in choosing an appropriate gift. St. Wilfrid Church will deliver the gifts to BCIS, which will distribute them to qualifying families early in December.

The display for the Heifer Project is created and staffed by the parish’s fourth and fifth grade Sunday school class and its teacher.

“[Through this] the kids really come to realize what kind of needs there are around the world. It’s very visual,” Hughes said.

The children bring plush animals from home to help illustrate the Heifer Project’s gifts of livestock and its mission to end hunger and poverty.

The parish has devised a way for children to afford the purchase of an alternative gift.

The Heifer Project provides flocks of chicks for $20. St. Wilfrid lets children purchase chicks for $1 and subsidizes the difference.

Orange County engineer Don Schoendorfer founded the Free Wheelchair Mission after designing a low-cost wheelchair. It now provides wheelchairs to the disabled worldwide for a total cost of $51.29 each, including an air pump for the chair’s wheels and shipping and handling.

St. Wilfrid’s own The Tanzania Group has built a one-room school with a bathroom in Endoputu, Tanzania. It is now raising funds to build a second room at the school.

Gift cards for recipients explain about each specific charity’s mission.

The hope is, Hughes said, this might plant the idea of alternative gift-giving in the minds of those who receive them.

If you don’t find a gift there that suits you, that’s also fine with the parishioners.

“We very much encourage people to give to their own favorite charities,” Hughes said. “Some people’s lives have been so personally touched by a specific charity that we never feel we are in competition.”

Those who visit the market will receive wallet-sized cards meant to guide them in their shopping year-round. “We stole the idea from the DVD, ‘What Would Jesus Buy?’” Hughes said. “We have to give them credit.”

The parish’s Adult Forum screened excerpts of the Morgan Spurlock film last Sunday. It chronicles the Rev. Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping.

If you’re not familiar with the film, you might want to look up my column headlined “What would Jesus buy?” from Nov. 29, 2007.

Five questions will be printed on the wallet cards: Why am I here? Do I need this? Where will I put it? How will I pay for it? What if I wait?

Other questions posed in the film included: “Where was it made? Who made it? Under what conditions? After seeing the film, I added a question of my own to the list: Do I want to dust it?

“It’s a fun time to be at our Christmas market,” Hughes said. “There’s a lot of laughing. It feels very joyful.”

Should you not make it to the market at St. Wilfrid, you might want to shop at the similar Colman Mall at Sts. Simon and Jude Catholic Church. Its doors will be open Nov. 30 after the Masses at 8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

The church is at 20400 Magnolia St. In addition to alternative gifts from Habitat for Humanity and the Heifer Project, it will also offer gifts from local charities, including the Alzheimer’s Family Center in Huntington Beach; the Catholic Worker; Loaves and Fishes; S.H.I.P. (which helps the homeless find jobs and housing); the Thomas House homeless shelter in Huntington Beach; Third World Gift and Handcrafts in Orange and St. Vincent de Paul.

On a Thanksgiving note, you might want to look into Farm Sanctuary’s Adopt-a-Turkey Project.

Those of you who read this column regularly know I’m a vegetarian. I plan to enjoy some of the meatless recipes found on the sanctuary’s website, www.adoptaturkey.org. I’ll be sponsoring a turkey adoption. Maybe you’d like to, too.

Next Thursday I’ll have more ideas for alternative gift-giving, including opinions from some local folks about whom — and whom not — to consider these gifts for.

MICHÈLE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She can be reached at [email protected].