Progress continues on Bread for the World's 2006 Offering of Letters, One Spirit. One Will. Zero Poverty., which seeks an increase in U.S. development assistance overseas. This spring BFW members helped persuade a record 52 senators to sign a letter to leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee, urging them to make additional funds available to fight global hunger and poverty. The letter's strong list of supporters adds significant momentum to efforts to win increases in poverty-focused development assistance.
|
Additional resources are needed for school meal programs, said nearly two-thirds of the respondents to a March 2006 poll.
Photo by Luis Alberto Garcia |
The legislation for our 2005 Offering of Letters is the Hunger-Free Communities Act, which would commit Congress to ending hunger in our country by 2015 and strengthen the efforts of local groups working to reduce hunger in their communities. Bread for the World members have been instrumental in securing an impressive number of cosponsors for the Hunger-Free Communities Act – 43 cosponsors in the Senate and 161 in the House.
Our members' ability to engage their senators and representatives is crucial to winning broad congressional support for efforts like increasing poverty-focused development assistance and passing the Hunger-Free Communities Act. It is heartening that many members of Congress are willing to take a stand on these issues.
Constituents have the power to create change in Congress, and Bread for the World's legislative successes are a credit to the efforts of a strong network of active citizens. In the past few years, the U.S. public has become more concerned about hunger and poverty. A bipartisan poll conducted in March 2006 for the Alliance to End Hunger found that nearly all the 1,000 likely voters surveyed believe that hunger is a major problem in the United States and around the world. The percentage of poll respondents who cite hunger and poverty as the single most important issue in deciding their vote for Congress has more than doubled since 2002 – from 4 percent to 10 percent.
Even more striking, 78 percent of respondents said that it is "important" for Congress to approve funding for President Bush's proposed increases in aid to developing countries, and 79 percent said they favor the provisions of the Hunger-Free Communities Act. The number who said that the U.S. government spends too little on world hunger increased from 27 percent in 2003 to 47 percent in 2006. See the graphic below for more survey results.
The evidence shows that people are willing to commit more resources to reducing hunger. At Bread for the World, we are building on this support by showing how concerned people, in their role as constituents, can increase poverty-focused development assistance and fight hunger and poverty in the United States.
back to top
Make Plans to Celebrate Bread for the World Sunday
Join hundreds of churches across the nation planning to celebrate Bread for the World Sunday this fall on October 29 – or another suitable Sunday between World Food Day (October 16) and Thanksgiving (November 26). During the time of harvest each year, churches around the country celebrate God's generous bounty and love in Jesus Christ by taking the opportunity to remember our brothers and sisters who are hungry.
Churches have found many exciting ways to reflect, pray and take specific steps to help end hunger by observing Bread for the World Sunday. At Lebanon (New Hampshire) United Methodist Church's celebration, for example, small loaves of bread were distributed to the congregants as the offering was received to symbolize the need to share their bounty and their commitment to anti-hunger advocacy.
Bread for the World will provide useful resources to help your congregation renew its commitment to ending hunger. This year Mpho Tutu, Episcopal priest and daughter of Bishop Desmond Tutu, will offer a scripture reflection as part of a free Reflection Resource that includes worship resources and creative ideas for celebrating. Bulletin inserts also will be available free of charge.
back to top
Care for Hungry People Spans Faith Perspectives
by Tony Hall
The following excerpts are taken from the new book, Changing the Face of Hunger (W Publishing Group, 2006).
More than two thousand verses in the Bible deal with the poor. In my travels, I've seen thousands of Christians and Jews serving the poor in some of the world's most difficult places. I've also learned of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and people of other faiths who help the least of their brethren.
When I paid my first visit to Ethiopia during the catastrophic 1984 famine, I found World Vision and the Missionaries of Charity laboring heroically to supply food and medical treatment to an overwhelming mass of starving people.
You've probably heard of other prominent Christian organizations that follow Jesus's instruction to serve the poor—Catholic Relief Services, the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, and Bread for the World, to name just a few. There are many such groups, large and small. And thousands of individual congregations do their part—perhaps by operating their own soup kitchen or homeless shelter, or by volunteering to help in community organizations, or by donating money that can be put to use anywhere in the world.
Many people are reaching across religious boundaries within the United States…Often this occurs as Christians realize they have much in common with members of other denominations, despite disagreements that result in some of us calling ourselves Baptists, Presbyterians, and so forth. The Hartford Seminary study found that 7 percent of U.S. congregations were engaged in service projects with people of different faiths. A third of the congregations were working with members of different denominations.
Addressing the [Interfaith Convocation on Hunger at Washington's National Cathedral in 2005], Rev. Njongonkulu W.H. Ndungane, Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, suggested that the event spoke to more than hunger.
"Perhaps we should learn the lesson that when we talk about doctrine and the abstract concepts of faith, we find far too many reasons to disagree," he said. "But when we put our faith into practice, look what we can achieve together."
There's no doubt about it. Jesus, after all, did not establish the Anglican Church, the Baptist Church, the Roman Catholic Church, or the Greek Orthodox Church. Jesus simply said, "Follow me."
Tony Hall is a former U.S. representative (D-OH) and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome. He is also a former Bread for the World board member.
back to top
Two Generations of Activists
Richard and Kimberly Brown-Whale's activism began at home. The couple got married in 1981, when they were recent seminary graduates. Rather than registering at a store for wedding gifts, they requested that their family and friends make a contribution to Bread for the World or Church World Service.
|
Sarah Brown-Whale learned activism from her parents.
BFW Photo/Brian Duss |
"The only other thing we asked for was a potluck dish for our wedding reception," recalled Richard. The couple's ministry focused on issues important to hungry and poor people. When they adopted their daughter, Sarah, three years later, Maryland's Carroll County Food Bank held a baby shower for her.
Fast-forward 25 years. Sarah is now a recent college graduate and a member of Bread for the World's staff.
"I've heard about Bread for the World all my life," said Sarah, who works in the Church Relations department. "I thought it would be really good to work for an organization that is effective and making a difference."
From 1985 to 1996, the Brown-Whale family lived overseas, working first with the Methodist Church of the Caribbean in the Americas in Anguilla and Grenada, then with the United Methodist Church in Mozambique. Mozambique was just emerging from more than 15 years of a brutal civil war.
"When I look back on it," said Sarah, "I was a kid who saw lots of hungry kids. When the church offered bread, lines of people would stretch around the block. I think I realized early on that I was lucky my parents could feed me."
When they returned to the United States, the Brown-Whales were pleasantly surprised to see how much Bread for the World had grown. Richard had worked with BFW founder Art Simon in the 1970s and recalled that Art's brother, Senator Paul Simon, once addressed a course on world hunger that he was teaching at the University of Maryland.
"I'm pleased that Sarah's job contributes to solving the problem of hunger," he said. "There is still a great need for structural and political reform."
Thank you to Richard, Kimberly and Sarah Brown-Whale for two generations of work on behalf of hungry and poor people!
back to top
Practicing Infectious Activism
Suzanne Berman is Bread for the World's Faith Outreach Organizer for the ONE Campaign, based in Atlanta. Here is her first-person account of organizing for ONE.
Often, when I give a presentation, I quite literally preach to the choir. I must say, there is something gratifying and even comforting about that process.
|
Suzanne Berman (seated) and other activists build the movement against hunger and poverty ONE person at a time.
Photo by Calvin Pollard |
But to me, the essence of Bread for the World is in those other moments. Those moments when I look out into the audience, and I see someone "get it" for the first time. I don't know if it's realization or compassion or faith, but when someone begins to believe in our work, you can literally see it in his/her eyes.
In an instant, global poverty becomes real, and international development becomes possible. And when that energy is shared in a room, you can feel it. I like to think of it as infectious activism.
I've seen that moment in a Southern Baptist in North Carolina, who shed a tear for a child that I met in Tanzania. I've see it in the eyes of Meghan Blanton, who came bounding up to me after Lobby Day because Rep. Spencer Bachus signed onto Hunger Free Communities when she was in his office.
I had no idea that this visible transformation existed before I came to Bread for the World. And everyday, I am amazed that this conversion can derive neither from a rock star nor a political powerhouse, but from me, a five-foot tall girl from Virginia who has the audacity to believe that we can make poverty history.
However, unlike the rock stars of the world, not only do we have the honor of sharing that moment with our activists, but we also have the privilege of helping them cultivate their newfound passion.
Because of Bread for the World, Jennifer Hitt has applied to the Peace Corps. Because of Bread for the World, four local papers published Mike Batell's article on the inattention to poor people in the president's State of the Union address.
Bread for the World and ONE have taught me that these relationships are the greatest fringe benefit of our work.
back to top
|
For the complete newsletter in its print version, please contact:
|
|
Publications, Bread for the World
50 F Street, NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20001
| Telephone: 202-639-9400
Fax: 202-639-9401
Email: publications@bread.org |
