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December

A Stronger Anti-Hunger Movement

In June 2005, Bread for the World members gathered in Washington, DC to learn, build community, and speak with policymakers about ending hunger and poverty. Photo by Rick Reinhard

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Dear Bread for the World members,

In many ways this has been a tough year. Hunger is on the increase in the United States and around the world. Millions of people are still suffering from recent disasters. Our political leaders are preoccupied with war, tax cuts and partisan conflict.

Yet in this difficult environment, Bread for the World members have clearly made a difference. I am grateful to each of you for supporting Bread for the World and for your faithful work on behalf of hungry and poor people.

• Bread for the World members have worked diligently all year to stop the proposed cuts to food stamps and other low-income programs. Congress will not make final decisions until very late in the year, but we won a clear victory when the Senate voted to make no cuts to the Food Stamp Program. Bread for the World, along with our partners in the religious community, has been the main voice for zero cuts.
  
  
• The Hunger-Free Communities Act commits the United States to cut food insecurity in half by 2010 and supports local groups fighting hunger in their communities. Both political parties were tightly disciplined early in the year, so we could not get even one Republican to take a step ahead of the President and introduce our bill until late May. But Bread for the World’s grassroots members took it from there. You persuaded members of Congress of both parties, one by one, to join the list of the bill’s cosponsors. With 37 cosponsors in the Senate and 137 in the House, including many Republicans, we are now in a good position to pass the Hunger-Free Communities Act.
  
  
• Bread for the World helped persuade President Bush to make ambitious commitments to Africa and other poor parts of the world at this year’s G-8 Summit – among them, a promise to double U.S. assistance to Africa by 2010. Congress has approved a $1 billion increase in poverty-focused development assistance for next year. While this is less than we were seeking, we can celebrate a continuing trend of increasing assistance to poor countries.
  
  
• In 2005, we achieved breakthroughs in our efforts to build a stronger anti-hunger movement. Our June mobilization against hunger in Washington opened new opportunities among religious bodies, notably evangelical Protestants, Jews and Muslims. Bread for the World also helped Bono launch the ONE Campaign. The Live 8 concerts in July made millions of people more aware of ways our government can support Africa’s development efforts, and 1.5 million people (many of them young) are now getting ONE emails. Half a million of them sent emails to President Bush about the G-8 Summit.
  

We have had an impact, and I am asking you to consider whether you can do even more. Our nation’s priorities are wrong. Congress appears likely to proceed with some cuts to food stamps and other low-income programs, while approving large tax cuts for affluent households. The United States is still consistently falling short of our promises to the world’s poorest people – and next year’s Offering of Letters, One Spirit, can change that.

So please send a generous year-end gift to Bread for the World. And can you make time to become yet more active – to write Congress, engage your church, and take a stand during next year’s elections?

This month we celebrate God’s coming into our world. God is good, and God is with us. May your celebration of Jesus’ birth be joyful and renewing.

With peace,

David Beckmann
President
Bread for the World

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No Acceptable Reason

By George McGovern

After world leaders at the 2005 Group of Eight summit promised to double aid to Africa to $50 billion, the popular rock star Bono, front man of the band U2, noted the decision could save hundreds of thousands of lives from hunger, poverty, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. Bono warned, however, that “it’s not the end; it’s the beginning of the end. A mountain has been climbed here only to reveal higher peaks behind it.” This reminds me of wartime words uttered by Winston Churchill in 1943, when he declared, “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.”

Climbing these political and humanitarian peaks to conquer poverty and hunger will require persistence and sustaining a political will. Now that I am eighty-three years old, I do not expect to see the end of world hunger – unless the good Lord extends my years beyond one hundred. But, as I noted in my book, The Third Freedom: Ending Hunger in Our Time, I do intend to complain loudly to St. Peter if I am called above (or raise the devil, if I’m called below) before we end hunger in America. I also expect to see us reach well past “the end of the beginning” of our victory over world hunger. If we can now reach other planets thanks to the scientific genius of our space architects, there is no acceptable reason why this planet should still have millions of hungry and starving men, women, and children by the year 2030. Wherever I am in the world beyond, if such there be, when my fellow humans are finally emancipated from hunger, I’m going to lead a chorus of celebration: Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

There comes to mind a verse from the Hebrew Scriptures, by the ancient scribe Ecclesiastes: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (3:1). I believe this is the season when all God’s children the world over should launch a triumphant campaign to banish hunger from the earth. Can there be any higher “matter under heaven”?

This excerpt is taken from the new book, Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge to Persons of Faith, by George McGovern, Bob Dole and Donald E. Messer (Fortress Press, 2005).

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Offering of Letters 2006:
One Spirit. One Will. Zero Poverty.

Through Bread for the World's 2006 Offering of Letters, people of faith and conscience will join together to urge our leaders to fulfill their promises to the world's hungry and poor people. The offering – One Spirit. One Will. Zero Poverty. – will build a strong case for significant increases in poverty-focused development assistance and urge Congress to make such assistance a higher priority in its spending decisions.

Poverty-focused development assistance can have a major impact in poor countries. In 2000, the United States and 188 other countries adopted the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include cutting hunger and extreme poverty in half by 2015.

President Bush took a positive step this July, when he made a commitment to double U.S. assistance to Africa by 2010. Next, Congress must allocate this funding. Our 2006 Offering of Letters campaign will seek significant additional poverty-focused development assistance, which is critical to achieving the MDGs.

Achieving our goal will require political will and leadership. Bread for the World has a track record of winning significant increases in effective assistance. People in Africa, Latin America and Asia are all working in their communities and through their governments to better their lives, to foster a more promising future for their children. And efforts like the ONE Campaign have added the voices of millions more people in industrialized countries. The Spirit moves, people act, and meaningful changes start to happen.

Watch for more information on One Spirit. One Will. Zero Poverty. in the next issue of Bread.

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The ONE Campaign: Deepening Our Impact

The ONE Campaign brings together people from all walks of life to tell our policymakers: The United States should lead the way in reducing global poverty, hunger and disease. We could make significant progress by devoting an additional ONE percent of the U.S. budget to poverty-focused development assistance.

This year, Bread for the World Institute collected more than 20,000 signatures for the ONE Campaign Declaration, recruited 235 ONE activists, and helped create 46 local ONE groups. Bread for the World Institute also produced special ONE resources – an educational ONE poster, The Power of ONE booklet for churches, and the new Advent resource, For Unto Us A Child Is Born – and helped develop the ONE Campaign's policy positions.

Katherine Newton with some of the posters she and her friends created. Photo courtesy of Kristi Newton

ONE events have taken place at colleges and seminaries across the country – from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, CA, to North Park University in Chicago, IL, and University Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX. Some activities bring in longtime Bread for the World supporters, such as Rick Steves of the well-known Europe Through the Back Door guidebook and television series. In November, Steves was a keynote speaker at a large ONE Campaign conference at Seattle University, along with Rev. Mpho Tutu.

At the Cornerstone Music Festival, one of the country's largest Christian music festivals, organizers gathered 850 new supporters of the ONE Campaign. Churches and religious denominations are also getting involved with the campaign, the related Micah Challenge Campaign or the Catholic Campaign Against Global Poverty. These include Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopalian, American Baptist, Cooperative Baptist, Evangelical Covenant, the United Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic, and Pentecostal Assemblies of the World churches and groups.

ONE activists are working at the community level as well; for example, volunteer Ron Mitchell initiated a unanimous resolution by the City Council of Mt. Vernon, NY, to declare Mt. Vernon a City of ONE.

Perhaps the youngest ONE community activist is Katherine Newton, who recently turned 7. After she heard about children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, Katherine persuaded her mother to contact Bread for the World Institute. At home in Abilene, TX, she made posters with ONE Campaign information. At Abilene's community Kidfest, Katherine and her friends collected 350 signatures for the ONE Declaration and had other kids place their handprints on a large "Hands of Hope" sheet. Katherine wrote to her ONE organizer, "I hope everyone can live. I will help."

Thank you to all who are working, ONE by ONE, to end global hunger and poverty!

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