Pastor Starves Himself to Raise Awareness of Hunger

A Collin County pastor is starving himself to bring attention to the problem of hunger in North Texas.

Pastor Joel Miller set up camp in a parking lot near U.S. 75 and Eldorado Parkway in McKinney. He's vowed not to eat a thing and drink only water until he collects enough food to fill the pantries of McKinney-area food banks in time for the holidays.

“I’m probably at 11 days, 16 hours, and 24 minutes, something like that,” he said.

The pastor said the first eight days were the hardest.

“It wasn’t just hunger; I thought I was going to kill myself or somebody else,” Miller said.

To help promote his cause, the husband and father of four is calling a tent high above Central Expressway his home. He’s praying he won't have to stay up there and starve for much longer.

“It's not fun at all -- your mind playing tricks on you and your body is screaming get food," Miller said.

The pastor’s goal is to collect 30,000 nonperishable food items. So far, he’s collected about 6,000.

“I feel like when more people find out what's going on, this trailer is going to fill up with food," he said.

As for what the pastor plans to fill up on when his hunger strike is over, he said, "right now, a rock with butter on it sounds good."

Miller has lost 14 pounds and expects to lose close to 40 pounds before his hunger strike is over.

To how to donate to the cause, visit: http://www.mckinneyfooddrive.com/.