Imagine entering into your favorite restaurant.  You walk through the front door and immediately smell the rich flavors of your favorite foods.  Ignoring the restaurant’s protocol, you refuse to wait in the lobby for the host to assist you.  Instead, you make your way to the table next to the window.

After a few minutes of waiting to be greeted and helped by a server, you decide to take matters into your own hands.  You’re very thirsty and can’t just sit there waiting when you can see the drink station only 15 feet away.  Without hesitation, you walk over and grab a few drink carafes filled with your favorite beverages.  You and your friends enjoy some refreshing soda and tea.

But your hunger pains are not satisfied.   It appears to you that the servers are all busy so once again you deal with the problem yourself. You walk up to the kitchen window and boldly call out the food that you and your friends would like to have.  The chef is too busy to look up, but heeds your demand anyway by saying he will get on it immediately.

Others in the restaurant notice your bold approach in ordering food and decide to follow your lead.  They also re-order their food through the window, shouting that it’s a “to-go” hoping for speedier results.  Not realizing where the orders are coming from, the chefs change directions and begin working on these new orders.  Soon, there is a mob in front of the kitchen window shouting their food orders.  There is shoving and pushing.  The chefs are in a frenzy and none of the orders is actually getting completed.  The servers are trying to sort things out and get the customers to return to their tables, but it’s not working.  The normal and healthy practices of the restaurant have disappeared and chaos has emerged.

This may seem like an extreme analogy, but we’d like you to ponder it. Just like at a restaurant, there are processes in place at Food for the Hungry to ensure that things are done in an efficient and orderly manner. Food for the Hungry has standard operating procedures as well. We recognize that you will build good relationships with the Team Coordinator and other FH international staff, but we ask that you do not contact them on work-related matters, such as information about your community, projects, schedule, sponsor children, and other similar issues. If you have questions or concerns, contact our Field Liaisons (your team leader has their contact information) and allow them to function in the roles and responsibilities that are entrusted to them. They would be glad to serve you.

We encourage relationships to be built, so if you do exchange contact info with FH international staff, please keep it on a personal level.

Thank you for adhering to these guidelines. Your cooperation is vital in keeping us all united, efficient and responsible stewards as we work together to end poverty and advance God’s kingdom in the hard places.