For 30 hours this weekend, members of the St. John's Episcopal Church youth group in Sharon went hungry to raise money to feed others.

The youth group members collected pledges to not eat for 30 hours, starting Friday evening and ending Sunday morning, and will donate the money to World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization.

On Saturday they also cleaned the Episcopal Community Services food pantry, the third largest non-government food pantry in the Shenango Valley. The pantry serves between 120 and 170 families every two weeks.

The kids set a goal of $750 for the event, said youth group leader Laura Peretic.

With only juice and crackers periodically to sustain them, the kids spent the whole 30 hours at the church doing Bible study and doing other activities, such as a hand-print project that represents the 29,000 lives lost to world hunger every year, said Amy DelFratte, also a youth group leader.

The kids also spent much of the time just hanging out with each other.

"We're big on the idea of fellowship," Ms. DelFratte said. "These kids have grown up together, spent most of their lives together ..."

The fast was to end with a sunrise service and huge breakfast today.

This is the third year the youth group has done this project, and the kids want to do it year after year, Ms. Peretic said.

"The kids keep it going. They whine and complain about the lack of food, but they always ask, are we doing the famine this year?" she said.

The event makes the kids aware of world hunger, which hits closer to home than many people think.

"We talk about World Vision and world hunger, but there's hunger right here at home," Ms. Peretic said. "It's a shock to them when (food pantry director Marilyn Gozich) says we have 150 families -- not people, families -- who come in here every two weeks to get a box of food."