David L. Wylie, a nondenominational youth leader, jump-started the movement in the United States about seventeen years ago as a youth director of Millen Baptist Church in South Georgia. He was looking for a way to stimulate the interest of his 25-member youth group in world hunger issues when he heard the idea of a voluntary hunger strike from World Vision. His group raised $3,000 that year, $5,000 the next and was featured on CNN Headline News and Wylie was nominated by Congressman Lindsey Thomas for a Presidential Point of Light Award.