As this year’s Offering of Letters continues, Bread for the World is becoming increasingly engaged in new initiatives by Congress and the administration to make foreign assistance more effective and increase its focus on agriculture, an area of key importance to hungry people in poor countries.
“We have so many opportunities now to help hungry and poor people,” said Bread for the World President David Beckmann. “This is exciting. But it also means more effort, not only from Bread’s staff but from our members.”
Thanks to the persistent work of Bread activists, H.R. 2139, the Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act of 2009, added its 100th cosponsor on July 31, hours before the House of Representatives adjourned for its August recess.
Building a strong bipartisan group of cosponsors for the House bill sends a very clear message to congressional leaders and the administration: our elected representatives—responding to messages from constituents—are serious about reforming the country’s foreign assistance programs. This milestone would not have been reached without your phone calls, visits, personal letters, and emails.
In other good news, a bipartisan group of six senators led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) and ranking member Richard Lugar (R-IN) introduced S. 1524, the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act of 2009.
Both H.R. 2139 and S. 1524 are strong building blocks in the effort to make U.S. foreign assistance more effective in fighting hunger and poverty. The House bill calls on the president to develop and implement a comprehensive national strategy for global development.
S. 1524 states that it is U.S. policy to promote global development, good governance, and the reduction of poverty and hunger. This is a first in U.S. foreign policy. The bill also focuses on rebuilding the policy, planning, and evaluation capabilities of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
U.S. foreign assistance helps people in developing countries, like this tailor in a village in Sudan, open small business operations.
Although the bills are not identical, both would begin the process of foreign aid reform. Planning a comprehensive development strategy and strengthening USAID, the primary agency responsible for poverty-focused development, would enable reform to move forward.
Beckmann testified at a July 22 hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on “The Case for Reform: Foreign Aid and Development in a New Era.”
“If this administration and Congress manage to improve the effectiveness of U.S. assistance, our dollars will do more good for decades to come, and voters will continue to support increases in funding,” Beckmann said.
The administration is also taking concrete steps to better coordinate foreign assistance. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced that the State Department and USAID are undertaking a quadrennial diplomacy and development review that will provide blueprints for diplomatic and development efforts. The review will incorporate perspectives from across the government, from Congress, and from nongovernmental experts.
According to Clinton, the review “has a different aim than previous reform efforts as well as a broader scope. It’s designed to tell us where we are and help us determine where we want to be, and how to bridge the gap between the two. Through this process, we will be working closely with the White House to harmonize the activities of USAID and the State Department with the goals and actions of the entire government.”
In addition to building support for the House and Senate bills and the administration’s review of development priorities, Bread staff are participating in briefings to shape a new initiative on global food security. The administration first discussed the initiative at an April meeting of the Group of 20 (G-20). More information about the initiative is expected to be released in late September, during the next G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, PA.
At this year’s Group of 8 (G-8) summit, held in L’Aquila, Italy, in July, the world’s leading industrialized countries, led by the United States, agreed to revitalize their commitment to agricultural development and raise $20 billion over three years to improve agriculture. This will improve the lives of small farmers and their families, who make up the majority of the world’s hungry people.
- H.R. 2139, the Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act of 2009
- S. 1524, the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act of 2009
- State Department: Quadrennial Review of Diplomacy and Development
- G-8 countries: three-year, $20 billion initiative for agricultural development
Urge your senators to cosponsor S. 1524, the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act of 2009, introduced by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) and ranking member Richard Lugar (R-IN).
This bill is an important building block in making foreign assistance more effective. It formally states that it is U.S. policy to promote the reduction of poverty and hunger, and it contains provisions to strengthen the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Visit www.bread.org to see if your senators are cosponsors of S. 1524. Thank those who are cosponsors and urge those who have not yet signed on to cosponsor this bill.
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
A reflection on Mark 10:35-45
by John Buchanan
“...whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
– Mark 10:43-45
They’re on the road to Jerusalem. Three times Jesus tried to warn them that there will be suffering and persecution and quite possibly death when they arrive in Jerusalem. His friends are amazed and afraid, as well they should be. And it’s precisely at this moment that James and John, two of his dearest and closest friends, come to him. Rather than standing with him in his hour of trial, trying somehow to support him as he walks toward his own hour of truth which he knows will be his hour of death, James and John use the moment to ask for a favor.
His friends think his arrival in Jerusalem will result in something good—like his becoming the king, the leader, number one in Israel. And when it happens—whatever it is—they, James and John, would very much like to be at his right hand and left hand in positions of power and visible greatness.
It had to have been one of the most devastating experiences in his life. Where have they been? Did they completely miss the point when he put the little child in their midst, or told the rich man to sell his possessions? Were they deaf and blind?
It’s so embarrassing that Matthew’s Gospel softens it a bit for us by having the mother of James and John ask the question. But Mark writes first, so it must have been James and John themselves who ask it. Jesus does not scold them. In fact, there is a sense in which he accepts and even affirms what lies behind their question—their ambition, their desire for greatness.
James and John simply have the definitions wrong. It’s all right to want to be great. But greatness is not what you think. It’s not about sitting at the right and left hand of the king. It’s not about having lots of money or even lots of professional success. In God’s kingdom, which Jesus believes is now the operational reality in the world, greatness is measured by service. “Whoever wants to be great must be the servant of all.”
Jesus says that God, the ultimate self-giver, is far more concerned about compassion and service than about ritual purity and religious power and prestige. And then he went about living it—healing, accepting the unacceptable, welcoming children, touching the untouchable, feeding the hungry. He will keep on living it until, on a Friday afternoon, he will pour himself out, dying as a ransom for many.
As followers of Jesus today, we have a valuable resource in Bread for the World. This remarkable organization enables you and me to join tens of thousands around the country in thousands of churches as we challenge the conscience of all people of good will. Urging Congress and the president to change policies, invest resources at home and abroad, to end the shame of global hunger.
“Whoever wishes to become great must be your servant,” he said. “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
In the words of Paul, "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus."
Rev. John Buchanan is pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago and editor of Christian Century. This excerpt is from the Scripture and sermon study for this year’s Bread for the World Sunday. Order worship resources with the entire reflection at www.bread.org.
Here’s a way to introduce your church to Bread for the World—or get your congregation even more involved in ending hunger
Thousands of churches across the country will soon celebrate Bread for the World Sunday. This is an opportunity for congregations that aren’t yet involved with Bread for the World to “get their feet wet.” For those churches with a history of anti-hunger work, Bread for the World Sunday is a way to renew and deepen their participation in efforts to end hunger in God’s world.
October 18 is the date many churches will observe Bread for the World Sunday, but any date in the fall can be selected. This year’s event is also an opportunity to celebrate Bread for the World’s 35th anniversary—and to give thanks for the progress that has been achieved in partnership with churches of all faith traditions.
Worship bulletin inserts and offering envelopes can be ordered free of charge. A reflection resource, which includes a scripture study by John Buchanan, editor of Christian Century and pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, is also available. Also featured is a new sacred song by Marty Haugen for Bread’s 35th anniversary as well as prayers and suggestions for Bread for the World Sunday activities.
To view, download, or order these resources, visit www.bread.org/sunday or call toll-free 1-877-263-5475.
Fall is a busy season for all of us. Plan ahead with this list of hunger-related events in the next couple of months. For additional information, please check www.bread.org or the Web sites provided, or contact your Bread organizer.
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September 1
Art Simon’s Book Tour Begins
For the tour schedule visit www.bread.org/artsimon
Sept. 21-Oct. 2
Congressional Visits in Local Offices
Let’s raise hunger and poverty issues with congressional candidates in their home offices
September 23
G-20 Faith Leaders Summit, Pittsburgh, PA
The summit will call attention to the needs of the world’s one billion hungry people in planning for sustainable recovery from the global economic crisis; David Beckmann will speak at morning press conference
September 23
David Beckmann will speak at Birmingham-Southern University’s event, “Food: From Sustenance to Community” Birmingham, AL
October 16
World Food Day
www.worldfooddayusa.org |
October 16-18
STAND UP
www.standagainstpoverty.org
October 18
Bread for the World Sunday (and other Sundays in the fall)
November 4-5
David Beckmann speaks on vaues and development, along with fellow coauthors of Friday Morning Reflections at the World Bank, Alexandria, Egypt
November 15
Bread for the World’s
Founder’s Society Dinner, Washington, DC
November 26 Thanksgiving |
Bread for the World is prominently featured in an excellent new book about hunger and the movement to fight it written by two Wall Street Journal reporters.
In Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty, Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman look at hunger from every angle—from policy perspectives on food aid and farm subsidies, to the effects of the Green Revolution, to warlords who use food shortages as a means of controlling a local population.
They begin with stories, of people affected by hunger, of people working to end it. The extensive reporting they undertook carried them from Ethiopia to Washington, DC, to Birmingham, AL. The stories they tell travel across time from Nobel Peace Prize recipient Norman Borlaug’s work in Mexico to defeat crop blight in 1944 to Irish rock star Bono’s advocacy in Washington and through the Midwest in 2002.
Bread enters the book in the second chapter, with our founding by Art Simon in New York in 1974, and is referenced throughout. The authors tell the story of Birmingham activist Pat Pelham, how she felt compelled to fight hunger after watching a rerun of the TV show Designing Women. It describes the role that Pelham and Elaine Van Cleave played in convincing their representative, Spencer Bachus (R-AL), to become an unexpected and passionate supporter of debt relief.
Thurow talked about the book in an interview for the July episode of Breadcast, Bread for the World’s podcast.
“I think what’s really impressive for both Scott and I is this new movement that’s gathering more and more steam,” he said. “When you look at the problem of hunger it can overwhelm you with the numbers, with the things one sees on TV, with the desperation of it all. But there’s just so much energy in organizations like Bread for the World….”
For the journalists, the book’s title revealed itself on multiple levels as they worked on the project.
“[Enough] kind of has three meanings. One, there’s enough food in the world to feed everybody and for everybody to have enough nutrition for their days. Two, enough is enough. We brought hunger with us into the 21st century, and shame on us. The Green Revolution was one of the great accomplishments of the 20th century, and here hunger is worse. It’s at a magnitude of over a billion people. That’s pre-Green Revolution levels.
“Three, there’s enough people in the world who are concerned and passionate about this issue that there’s enough momentum building to really get on top of these issues.”
“My soul wouldn’t rest unless I did a book [on hunger], said Thurow.
Listen to Roger Thurow’s interview about Enough at www.bread.org/breadcast.
The following senators cosponsored Senate Resolution 157, recognizing Bread for the World on its 35th anniversary:
- Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN)
- Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
- Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL)
- Sen. Herbert Kohl (D-WI)
- Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
- Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
- Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA)
- Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)
- Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
- Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD)
- Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
- Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Carlos Navarro and Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) discuss foreign assistance reform at the Talin World Market in Albuquerque.
Bread activists from New Mexico keep track of the state’s three representatives in Congress, whether in Washington, DC, on weekdays or at home on weekends. One Saturday last May, activists met with two of the three—at a train station and a deli.
When Bread’s New Mexico volunteer state coordinator, Carlos Navarro, and other Bread members learned that Rep. Harry Teague (D-NM) planned to take the commuter train north from Albuquerque to build support for his plan to extend the line, they caught up with him at the train station.
They gave him a copy of H.R. 2139, the Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act of 2009, and asked him to cosponsor the bill.
LaVerne Kaufmann, coordinator of the Bread group in the city of Las Cruces in Teague’s district, followed up. All Bread members in the district were contacted and asked to call Teague’s office to encourage him to cosponsor.
That same day, the activists also learned that Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) would be talking with constituents at Talin World Market in Albuquerque. What better place, they thought, to discuss a bill on international issues?
“I spent a little more time with Mr. Heinrich than I did with Mr. Teague. He gave me almost as much time as we get during our Lobby Day meetings in Washington. The difference here is that we were surrounded by meat and food cases and wonderful smells!” Navarro wrote in Bread-New Mexico’s blog.
Fellow Bread activist Marjorie Williams came to Talin World Market later in the day to answer any questions the representative had about H.R. 2139.
Several weeks later, Heinrich was meeting with constituents at Smith’s supermarket on Albuquerque’s west side. Ellen Buelow from the nearby Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Community went to Smith’s to lobby the representative. She reminded him that her church had sent him 600 hand-written letters supporting foreign assistance reform.
How can you persuade busy people to write letters to Congress? Prof. Bill Williams, a member of Shandon Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC, found a good answer: combine Offerings of Letters with the church’s regular twice-yearly blood drives.
It’s a way for church members to do two good things at once: writing a letter on behalf of hungry people and donating blood to people who need it.
“One year, the Offering of Letters coincided with our blood drive,” Williams says. “When we tripled the number of letters that year, I realized this was the way to continue building support for the Offering. In fact, most of our letters are now written during the two blood drives.”
Williams adds that since, according to blood donation guidelines, donors must stay at the site for about 30 minutes after they donate, most people are willing to write a letter or two to Congress while they wait.
“I think many churches could do this, especially since most large churches have blood drives,” he said. “You just need to have one or two people on hand to encourage people and provide supplies like paper and envelopes.”
Bread members’ creativity and commitment to taking advantage of any chance to get our message out are gifts to our mission—ending hunger in God’s world.
From a Bread Gathering to The New York Times
Like many others, Cindy Levin’s path to Bread for the World led through her church, First United Methodist Church of Evanston, IL. In 2007, the Illinois native wanted to see her elected representatives take more action against hunger and poverty. As a busy mother of two toddlers, Levin felt slightly cut off from the world. She was eager to help but limited as to how much she could do.
“I decided to take the leap and participate in a Bread for the World Offering of Letters,” she says. A year later, when the person who ran the program at church wanted to pass the baton to another member, Levin took on the Offering of Letters leadership.
Her predecessor had urged Levin to attend Bread for the World’s 2007 Gathering. She decided that going would help her learn more about Bread and how she could help. She was unprepared for what a life-changing experience it would be. At the Gathering, she attended talks by journalists from the Washington Post and National Public Radio and by congressional staffers, hearing tips for reaching the public and elected officials. Levin saw Bread for the World as an open door to engage regular citizens in advocacy.
As soon as she got home, she wrote a letter of thanks to Bread, to say how energizing she’d found the Gathering and to ask how she could become more involved.
“They were happy to hear from me, which felt so great. Best of all, they showed me how I could make a difference during the time I had available,” Levin says.
Encouraged by Bread staff member Shawnda Hines, Levin wrote a letter to the editor of her local newspaper about the urgency of fighting poverty. To her surprise, the paper published her letter the next week. It would take 40 more attempts to see another one of her communications appear in print, but Levin was undeterred.
Then she received a telephone call from The New York Times, asking to print her letter urging the passage of the Global Poverty Act. Success!
Cindy Levin enjoys the spiritual fulfillment and personal empowerment her newfound role as advocate gives her. Wanting to share the feeling with other young mothers, she began a letter-writing club called “Social Justice for Social Moms,” giving her friends a primer on how to contact newspaper editors. She also started an anti-poverty blog (http://endpoverty-ccyl.blogspot.com) and joined “Let’s Talk Bread,” a monthly discussion group in nearby Oak Park. She has also met face to face with Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).
“Bread emphasizes that, even though I’m doing this independently, I am part of a movement. The support for learning activism is right there for anyone who wants to get involved,” she said.
People of faith have organized to make a powerful impact on a wide range of U.S. policies. How it happens—from strategy to success—is the topic of a new television documentary. The CBS Religion Unit sent a film crew behind the scenes at Bread’s Lobby Day to experience faith-based advocacy in action. The producer interviewed several Bread members and staff and followed two participants on their congressional office visits. The half-hour program, In Good Faith: Religion, Politics and Advocacy, will be released nationwide to CBS stations on Sunday, September 27. Check your local television listings to find out when the program is scheduled to air in your area.
