Get Involved

2006: Progress Continues
A Message from President David Beckmann

As we approach the close of 2006, you and I can feel deeply encouraged.  We have won real victories for hungry people, and are poised to do even more next year.

This year, at your urging—and despite President Bush's determination to do otherwise—Congress decided to make no cuts at all to the Food Stamp Program and actually increased funding for other threatened nutrition programs.  We won a large increase in poverty-focused development assistance for 2007. And as I write this letter, Congress is planning to increase funding for poverty-focused development assistance by at least $1 billion. These funds will help African farmers produce more food, support the teaching of reading and writing to girls, and strengthen the fight against HIV/AIDS. 

Progress against hunger has slowed in recent years. New U.N. numbers show a negligible decline in the number of undernourished people in the world, but continuing decline in the proportion of the world's people who are undernourished. Bread for the World's work on debt, aid and trade has helped some African and other low-income countries achieve progress against hunger. Hunger and poverty have increased in the United States over the last five years, but new U.S. government figures show that food insecurity in the United States finally declined last year. Last year's improvement was partly because of expanded food stamp assistance that Bread for the World helped achieve.

In the New Year, we will see the start of a new Congress and the reauthorization of the farm bill, a critical piece of legislation for farmers, rural communities and hungry people here in the United States and around the world. Both of these new beginnings are sacred opportunities to plant the seeds of change for hungry and poor people.

In 2007, Bread for the World will launch an ambitious anti-hunger campaign focusing on the farm bill. We will urge Congress to reform this important law to better serve the needs of farmers, rural communities and hungry people in the United States and in developing countries. For more about our 2007 Offering of Letters to help farmers and advance progress against hunger, see page 3.

  It is because of your steadfast work and generosity that we have been able to set bold goals for 2007. With your continued support, we can make Bread for the World an even stronger voice for hungry people. 

In this season of hope, God comes to us again, and we remember that God's love sustains us in the face of every challenge. Thank you for embodying the love and hope that we celebrate at Christmas.

With Peace,

David Beckmann
President

National Alliances Against Hunger Meet in Rome

In early November, 11 representatives of the U.S. Alliance to End Hunger joined a dozen other national alliances against hunger in Rome. Alliances who sent representatives included Brazil, Guatemala, France, Ghana, Sierra Leone, the Gambia, Jordan and Paraguay.

Altogether, 50 countries now have alliances against hunger. They are diverse, but each is composed of institutions and individuals committed to advocating for hungry people. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program bring the national alliances together into an International Alliance to achieve the first Millennium Development Goal: cutting hunger in half by 2015.

BFW and U.S. Alliance President David Beckmann led a meeting with FAO's director general about next steps in the development of the International Alliance. For example, the Global Foodbanking Network, a member of the U.S. Alliance, plans to work with several other national alliances to help them either increase or create food banking in their own countries. In Ghana, the first food bank is designed to help farmers reduce post-harvest losses. Some of the food is then made available to the national school meals program.

“We met with many people who are living amidst the harsh realities that poor people face,” said Beckmann. “An activist from Sierra Leone who is trying to help families reestablish their lives and their farms after years of civil war, a Catholic youth worker in Kerala, India, who is campaigning against pollution of his town’s fishing waters by mining operations, and quite a few others.… I learned a lot from these discussions.”

back to top

"God Makes Alliances with the Powerless"

By Noelle Damico

Readings: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

The pastoral letter to Titus explains that God's grace has appeared, bringing salvation to all.  Christ redeems us so that we may be "zealous for good deeds" (2:14).

If there is one time of year when the Church is zealous for good deeds, it must be Christmas.  We arrange food baskets with a fury and adorn Christmas trees with mittens for children in need.  We give away used clothing, write large checks to charities, and lavish gifts on the newspaper deliverer, the babysitter, and our co-workers.

But is our zeal today merely a projection of our acquisitiveness, a kind of aggravated energy for giving whereby we, not God, become the savior?

It's not that we shouldn't be generous.  It's not even that we shouldn't remember the needs of those who are poor.  It's that our zealousness seems to spring from a need to control or make sense of our lives rather than from Christ's redemption.  In our giving as well as in our getting we become tangled up in an excess that numbs us to the startling message of salvation:  we do not save others, and we cannot save ourselves.  God alone saves. 

These texts for Christmas Eve resound with the mystery and justice of God's sovereignty and the unexpected response of creation.  In Psalm 96, God judges the people with equity—after all, God established the creation.  And the creation rejoices to discover itself vulnerable and at the mercy of God's judgment.  In the passage from Isaiah, the child of God establishes a new kingdom of justice and peace—a child!  And the impossible happens: bloody garments of war are burned as fuel for the fire.  The people forswear national security in favor of God's new kingdom.

In the reading from Luke shepherds, not magi or kings, are the first to honor the Christ Child. And Christ himself comes into the world poor and exposed to judgment.  God makes alliances with the powerless of the world. 

Returning to Titus, we are warned to renounce impiety and worldly passions.  I would like to think that this includes a culturally calculated performance of (seasonal) good.  Perhaps a measure of our willingness to truly receive Christ this night is not just our willingness to relinquish acquisitiveness; maybe it also involves allowing ourselves to be vulnerable, to remove and burn the garments of war, to relinquish our economic security, and to expose ourselves to the merciful judgment of God. 

Rev. Noelle Damico, a United Church of Christ minister, is active on issues of economic rights and farmworker justice.

This excerpt is taken from Hunger for the Word: Lectionary Reflections on food and Justice (Year C), available for order from our online store.

back to top

Offering of Letters 2007:
Seeds of Change: Help farmers. End hunger.  

Bread for the World’s 2007 Offering of Letters campaign, Seeds of Change: Help farmers. End hunger., focuses on improving U.S. farm policies to better serve the needs of hungry and poor people. In 2007, the U.S. farm bill will be reauthorized – which happens only once every five years. This is a great opportunity for people of faith and conscience to work together for justice, because the farm bill is about much more than farming – it shapes policies on nutrition programs like the Food Stamp Program, rural development, trade, farm commodity payments, conservation and more.

Today's farm policy isn't meeting the needs of most farmers, rural communities or hungry people. Through Seeds of Change: Help farmers. End hunger., we will join together to urge Congress to pass a farm bill that broadens support for U.S. farmers, strengthens rural communities, provides sufficient nutritious food for hungry people in this country, and helps farmers in developing countries support themselves and feed their families.

God calls us to be just, both as individuals and as a nation. In a just world, every person has enough to eat. Yet far too many people continue to struggle with hunger – more than 38 million in the United States and 850 million people worldwide. No lawmaker wants to increase hunger, but sometimes our policies inadvertently do so. If policies contribute to hunger, it is our moral responsibility to change them. 

By improving U.S. farm policy, we can make things better for farmers, rural communities and hungry people. Bread for the World’s 2007 Offering of Letters will focus our power as citizens on creating a country and a world in which everyone has enough to eat. Watch for more information on Seeds of Change: Help farmers. End hunger. in the next issue of Bread.

back to top

Appreciation: G. W. Haworth, 1911-2006

In 1948, G. W. Haworth started his own office furniture business from his garage in Holland, MI. Many years later, Mr. Haworth was introduced to Bread for the World by Dave and Carol Myers, BFW supporters from Michigan. They'd noticed the somewhat worn furnishings –- including some makeshift repairs with tape -- in Bread for the World's office, which was then located on Rhode Island Avenue in Washington, DC.  When Bread for the World relocated to nearby Silver Spring, MD, in 1993, Mr. Haworth donated 55 workstations for the new office. And just this fall, Bread for the World received another gift of workstations to help meet our growing needs. Mr. Haworth also contributed to Bread for the World Institute's work of seeking justice for hungry people through research and education by making a major gift to its endowment.

G. W. Haworth was born in a sod shanty on the Nebraska plains; his family sometimes struggled to put food on the table. He moved to Michigan as a teenager. After an employer encouraged him to go to college, he became a high school industrial arts teacher and began making custom wood furniture as a sideline. Mr. Haworth worked hard over a period of years to build his business, originally called Modern Products; eventually, Haworth Inc. ranked among the 400 largest private companies in the United States.

"Mr. Haworth thought of Bread for the World as a way to give back to the community and bring people together to take action on a major problem," said Bread for the World President David Beckmann. "He believed it was important to educate people about hunger and poverty. He also did a lot for children in his home state of Michigan."  

G.W. Haworth still worked at his company three days a week when he was well into his 90s. He died October 25, 2006 at the age of 95. He is survived by his wife Edna, five children, 19 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren.

We give thanks for the life of G.W. Haworth.

Bread for the World Members STAND UP for Hungry and Poor People

Churches, campus organizations and community groups active in Bread for the World and the ONE Campaign have helped set a world record for standing up against poverty – literally and symbolically. The STAND UP events, which coincided with World Food Day on October 16, allowed participants to show their commitment to ending poverty and achieving the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Participants also learned more about the MDGs, which were adopted by the United States and 188 other countries in 2000 and focus on making significant progress against hunger, poverty and disease by 2015. The MDGs set specific targets such as cutting hunger in half and reducing maternal mortality by three-fourths.

STAND UP came at a good time for St. David's Episcopal Church in San Antonio, TX. The church holds an Offering of Letters every spring and had been on the lookout for a Bread for the World fall event to coincide with its annual retreat at Camp Capers on the Guadalupe River. St. David's events featured the litany for the Millennium Development Goals developed by Bread for the World. Outreach coordinator Catherine Lillibridge recruited both young people and adults to help lead the prayers. A prayer about universal primary education was read by an elementary school principal, a prayer on preventable diseases by a physician, and a prayer on safe drinking water by a leader of St. David's annual mission to Honduras.

"It was great fun being part of a worldwide effort while feeling our power as a community to raise awareness of the opportunity to make a difference in our generation," said organizer Nancy Schweers.

The Guinness World Record for standing up against poverty is now held by STAND UP, with 23,542,614 participants at more than 11,600 events. More than 3.6 million participants were from Africa. Thank you to all who organized STAND UP events and focused attention on the MDGs!

back to top

 
During this season of hope, please send Christmas cards to your representatives in Congress, whether new or re-elected. Let them know of your concern for hungry and poor people, in the United States and around the world, and urge them to support policies that will reduce hunger and poverty.

Points to make:

• As the new congressional session begins, please keep in your hearts the hungry and poor people in our country and around the world.



• More than 38 million people in the United States live in households that struggle to put food on the table. Worldwide, more than 850 million people are chronically hungry.



• There are effective ways to fight hunger and poverty. One important way is to reform U.S. farm policy to better support both U.S. farmers and hungry people overseas.

U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Capitol Switchboard: 202/224-3121

back to top