Work Begins on Our 2008 Offering of Letters
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photo Margaret W. Nea
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In 2008, Bread for the World will push for more and better poverty-focused development assistance – funding in the U.S. budget for programs that give people in poor countries the skills and opportunities to break the cycle of poverty permanently. These programs generally focus on the long-term investments that are essential to people working their way out of poverty: agricultural development, nutrition, clean water, health care, primary education.
The United States should provide more assistance so that we can meet the commitments our country has made in recent years. And we should provide better assistance, with resources targeted carefully to reach those in greatest need with the maximum impact.
Thanks to the faithful work of Bread for the World members and others pushing for improvements, for the past several years Congress has increased funding for poverty-focused development assistance by about $1 billion per year. U.S. spending on poverty-focused development assistance has grown from $6.8 billion in 2000 to $14 billion in 2007. But this is still only one-half of 1 percent of the U.S. budget, and we're not yet on track to fulfill the promises we've made. To honor these commitments, the United States should increase our investment in poverty-focused assistance by at least $5 billion per year.
To make our development assistance more effective, this year Bread for the World will support passage of the Global Poverty Act, S. 2433. This bill, passed by the House of Representatives in 2007, would commit the U.S. government to the first U.N. Millennium Development Goal – cutting hunger and extreme poverty in half -- and require a coordinated strategy to achieve the goal. The strategy would emphasize cooperation with other countries, international institutions, civil society groups and the private sector. The next step is for the Global Poverty Act to be considered and passed by the Senate.
Including the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) in U.S. government policy would mobilize the next administration on the commitment our country made in 2000 to help achieve all the MDGs by 2015. It would require various federal agencies to incorporate the MDGs into their planning. The eight MDGs seek to improve the quality of life of hundreds of millions of poor people. In addition to "cut hunger and extreme poverty in half," the MDGs include reducing child and maternal mortality, ensuring universal primary education, and halting the spread of deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
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Margaret W. Nea photo
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The additional poverty-focused assistance we have won so far is clearly making a difference. Even as the world's population is increasing, the absolute number of people living in extreme poverty is decreasing. The number of people living on less than $1 per day has fallen to 980 million – the first time since data has been collected that the figure has been less than 1 billion, and a decrease of 270 million people since 1990. For the first time since 1960, fewer than 10 million children under five die each year. Two million people are receiving antiretroviral medications for HIV/AIDS, extending their lives and their ability to work and raise their children.
But 28,000 children under five still die every day of preventable causes. About 33 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, more than two-thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa. A woman's risk of dying from treatable or preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth is 1 in 16 in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to 1 in 2,500 in the United States. There is one doctor for every 10,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to a doctor for every 350 people in the United States. Women in developing countries walk an average of 3.6 miles every day to fetch water, and more than half a billion women around the world lack basic literacy skills.
Bread for the World's 2008 Offering of Letters:
- urges Congress to approve at least an additional $5 billion for poverty-focused development assistance;
- calls on Congress to finalize the Global Poverty Act.
The United States has the ability to bring hope and opportunity to millions of the world's poorest people. Our 2008 Offering of Letters calls on our government to do what it has the power to do.
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Vision, Mission and Transformation
By Rev. Carol Wade
Epiphany is an astonishing word that suggests the unfurling of mystery. Mystery, in the biblical sense, however, does not mean an unsolvable riddle, but rather an all-pervasive sense of living in God's light and participating in something greater than we can imagine. Epiphany is about 
vision, mission and transformation.
"Ah-ha!" moments shine forth in Epiphany as we discover who Christ is and what that means for us. A wondrous star sets the stage. The baby born to a little family in need of shelter is revealed to the world as the Messiah. The Magi, representative of peoples from diverse places and ethnicities, signal that God's good news is meant for all. Our understanding of God's eternal plan gains greater clarity in the radiance of Christ's glory. Epiphany creates vision.
The gift of Epiphany is the light it shines on the discrepancies between our world and God's coming reign. We know that the shroud of darkness that covers God's people in poverty must be lifted through right relationship of neighbor helping neighbor, across all boundaries and localities. We recognize that the veil of tears that clouds our response must shed forth showers that dew not only the desert of our own souls, but also the parched and impoverished places of our world. Epiphany calls us to journey forth like the Magi bearing a treasure trove of precious gifts. Epiphany calls us into mission.
Epiphany reminds us that Jesus came that all might have life in abundance. Such work is scarcely ours alone to accomplish, but we are to take our part in God's vision of a world transformed through Christ. But if the complexities that surround efforts to alleviate global poverty make us feel riddled with confusion, Epiphany tells us that seemingly unsolvable challenges are not impossible when we live in God's light. Epiphany carries forth transformation.
The Millennium Development Goals offer an effective tool in organizing our participation in God's vision of a world transformed through Christ and in mission. Many church families, including The Episcopal Church, have embraced the MDGs as a way to work to eradicate global poverty. There are many ways we can do our part: we can choose locally grown food to help small farmers or support a microfinancing project that helps co-ops in Tanzania or Guatemala. We can write to our congressional representatives, asking them to support bills that eliminate poverty, and share with friends these important issues. Bread for the World's 2008 Offering of Letters will give us our own chance to answer the Epiphany question, "What gifts do you bear?" Just as the Magi came bearing gifts in honor of Christ, we too have our own treasure trove of gifts to offer our impoverished world on behalf of Christ.
When we walk in the glorious light of Christ our gifts abound. What gifts will you share?
The Revered Carol L. Wade is Canon Precentor at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC. In this capacity, she oversees the liturgy and work of the musicians for over 2,000 services a year. Carol Wade is also Chaplain to the House of Bishops where she designs worship, preaches and pastors the bishops of The Episcopal Church at their bi-annual meetings.
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Lenten Resources Available
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Lent historically has been a time of preparation for baptism. We enter the community of Christian faith and are daily renewed in faith through repentance, returning to the love of God and of neighbor.
– Glen Bengson, Hunger for the Word (Year A). |
Lent is approaching rapidly. As in previous years, Bread for the World is offering a free resource, Lenten Prayers for Hungry People. Prepared in a table tent format, this resource includes readings, prayers, and actions to help you observe Lent in 2008. From the First Week in Lent (Jesus Sends the Devil Away) to Holy Week (Jesus Encounters the Crowds), our suggestions help you focus on the needs of hungry people in God's world.
In late January, Bread for the World will also have a printable bulletin insert for Lent available for download. Order your copy of Lenten Prayers for Hungry People.
New Officers and Members Welcomed to the Bread for the World Board
Bread for the World has elected the 2008 leadership of our board of directors as well as new members of the board.
David Miner, Chair
Indianapolis, IN,
David Miner recently retired from his position as a senior executive of Eli Lilly’s animal health unit. He has been a grassroots activist for more than 20 years and is an active Presbyterian.
William Epps, Vice Chair
Los Angeles, CA
The Rev. William Epps is the Senior pastor at Second Baptist Church and editor of National Baptist Voice, the magazine of the National Baptist Convention.
June H. Kim, Secretary
New York
June Kim is the executive secretary of the World Hunger/Poverty and Sustainable Agriculture and Development programs of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).
Ervin Sims, Jr., Treasurer
Kansas City, KS
Ervin Sims, Jr., is the pastor of Mt. Carmel Church of God in Christ, a Bread for the World Covenant Church
Newly elected board members also include:
- Nancy Arnison, Chicago, IL
- Suzanne Broetje, Prescott, WA
- Robert Cahill, New York, NY
- John Carr, Cheverly, MD
- Pierre de Vries, Kirkland, WA
- Elizabeth Donnelly, Belmont, MA
- Peter England, Miami, FL
- Jamesina Evans, Topeka, KS
- Elizabeth Henry, Little Rock, AR
- Jeremy Lewis, Atlanta, GA
- Ed Payne, Minneapolis, MN
- Rev. Gina Stewart, Memphis, TN
- Bishop Richard Thompson, Wake Forest, NC
- Meg Wallhagen, Mill Valley, CA
- Meredith Story Williams, Dripping Springs, TX
These new board members join 29 returning members of the board of directors.
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Putting Our Mission into Words
As part of our refreshed communications, Bread for the World has adopted this credo (or testament) to express the essentials of our mission. We have begun using our updated logo. And as you've probably noticed, we have changed the Bread newsletter to an 8 ½ by 11 format and have begun to alter its look.
We hope the credo inspires you and reminds you why you are a part of Bread for the World. We thank you for being part of this work.
Credo
Download 
We are moved by God's grace in Jesus Christ
To work for justice for hungry people.
They may be in the next house. Or in the next country.
No matter where they live, they are our neighbors.
And we have the power to help.
Charity alone is not enough.
We must urge our government to make fair decisions
So struggling families can provide for their children.
We must write personal letters and emails to Congress
And engage our churches, campuses and other organizations.
We must change laws and structures that allow poverty to persist.
When we turn our faith into action, God uses our voices.
Again and again, we win help and opportunity.
Two fish become many.
Five loaves become enough to feed a multitude.
God is moving in our time
To end hunger,
And we are part of this great liberation.
It is our mission to help our neighbors. Wherever they live.
They are hungry.
And we are Bread for the World.
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Bread for the World Remembers Connie Wick
Bread for the World honors the memory of Connie Wick, who passed away in November 2007. Wick was a longtime grassroots leader and the president of the Bread for the World local group at the Robin Run Retirement Community in Indianapolis, IN.
Wick came to the attention of fellow Bread for the World advocates nationwide in 2004 after she wrote a letter to her senator, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), supporting funding for the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and global HIV/AIDS programs. Soon after she sent the letter, Bread for the World President David Beckmann was attending a White House signing ceremony when he had the opportunity to talk with President Bush about the importance of full funding for the MCA. The president called over two key senators, then-Majority Leader Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) and Sen. Lugar, and asked them to help secure the funding.
Just after this conversation, Sen. Lugar said to Beckmann, "You know, I am just now responding to a letter from a constituent, Connie Wick. She is saying just what you are saying, that we should fully fund the MCA, the AIDS initiative, and not cut funding for ongoing programs of assistance to poor people."
"I was again impressed by the power of Bread for the World members," said Beckmann afterward. "The chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee had just been asked by the president of the United States to help get full funding for the MCA, and what immediately came to the senator's mind was a recent letter from an active constituent—Connie Wick."
In addition to her Bread for the World activism, Wick worked for environmental and civil rights causes, dedicating much of her life to winning improvements in public policy. Throughout the 1970s, for example, she led a volunteer effort that was successful against the odds in saving the local Wildcat Creek, in the path of a proposed U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam project. The dam appeared to be inevitable when Wick became president of the local environmental group. She and the group collected 20,000 signatures, organized bus trips to visit lawmakers in Washington, gave tours of the targeted areas to community leaders, and educated themselves on the technical aspects of dam-building.
"When we started to make headway, the power structure kept wondering where our money came from," Wick told fellow Indianapolis Bread for the World activist Fran Quigley last year. "But we didn't have any money. We just had a lot of volunteers, a lot of hard work, and a lot of community support."
To see video excerpts from Bread for the World’s 2006 interview with Connie Wick, please visit www.bread.org/wick. She remains an inspiration to activists everywhere.
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Achieving the MDGs Here at Home
Not so long ago, many Americans faced poverty in their futures: In 1960, one in every three U.S. seniors lived below the poverty line. But by the early 1970s, this rate had been cut to one in six, and today, seniors have the lowest poverty rate of any age group. Poverty among seniors was tackled through government social policies like Social Security, Medicare, and improvements in nutrition assistance. Impressive progress was made because the U.S. public regarded the high rate of senior poverty as unacceptable and helped build the political will to solve the problem.
Richard Lord photo |
The significant reduction of senior poverty remains one of the most inspiring achievements of U.S. social policy. It tells us that dramatic reductions in hunger and poverty are possible if there is the will to address these problems resolutely. But how can we generate the commitment required to move hunger to the top of our national agenda? Bread for the World Institute's 18th Annual Hunger Report, Working Harder for Working Families, finds that the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provide a good opportunity.
The MDGs, a set of eight targeted, achievable human development goals, were adopted by all the countries of the world in 2000. The deadline set then was the year 2015. Generally, people in the United States think of the MDGs as goals for rural villages in East Asia or sub-Saharan Africa, or crowded urban slums in Calcutta or Sao Paulo—not as goals for the United States. But in our country, we have 35 million people who live in households struggling to put food on the table. Our national wealth makes this completely unnecessary. And yet we have pockets of deep, persistent poverty that we tend to neglect until disaster strikes with tremendous hurricane force—places like Brownsville, TX; East St. Louis; the Mississippi Delta; and Indian reservations in the Dakotas.
Working Harder for Working Families points out that the approach taken by the MDGs makes sense for the United States. The MDGs were developed using the lessons from decades of experience all over the world about how human development really happens. The outcomes we seek are different from those in the world's poorest countries, but the goals make sense anywhere and at any starting point: cutting hunger and poverty in half, dramatically improving child and maternal health, slowing the spread of diseases that disproportionately affect poor people, raising levels of educational achievement, and building environmental sustainability.
Many organizations in the United States have a long history of efforts to end hunger and poverty, and the momentum is growing. For example, Christian Churches Together, the forum that brings together churches across the full spectrum of Christianity in America, has named U.S. poverty as a priority focus. The 2015 deadline will help generate additional U.S. public interest and action to make progress here at home.
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United States Not Making Progress on Food Insecurity Goal
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The goal of the federal government’s Healthy People 2010 initiative is to cut the U.S. food insecurity rate to 6 percent by 2010. When the United States agreed to the Millennium Development Goals in 2000, we had a food insecurity rate of 10.5 percent. In 2006, with only four years left before 2010, the U.S. food security rate was 10.9 percent—an additional half-percentage point away from our goal.
Source: USDA |
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Points to make:
- Ask your members of Congress to do all they can to increase poverty-focused development assistance by at least $5 billion in fiscal year 2009.
- Ask your senators to cosponsor and pass the Global Poverty Act so that our assistance will have the maximum impact for those with the greatest need.
- Poverty-focused development assistance makes an important difference for nearly a billion people worldwide who live on less than $1 per day.
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
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Publications, Bread for the World
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Washington, DC 20001
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Fax: 202-639-9401
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