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FARM BILL

• Call (800-826-3688) or email your representative and urge them to pass a bipartisan farm bill that protects and strengthens domestic nutrition and international programs.
• The Senate is expected to introduce its version of the farm bill soon. The House version (H.R.2) failed but could be reconsidered on the floor again this month. The legislation included stricter work requirements, and benefit and eligibility cuts, in the name of getting SNAP recipients back to work. But SNAP already encourages work. When individuals can meet their basic needs, they don't need to worry about where their next meal will come from.

For more information on this issue:

• How the U.S. Farm Bill Can Help End Hunger
• Farm Bill Fails in the House

Global Food Security Act

• Call (800-826-3688) or email your members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor the Global Food Security Reauthorization Act.
• Lawmakers have introduced the Global Food Security Reauthorization Act (H.R. 5129/S. 2269). The House bill was unanimously voted out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in April. The legislation's reauthorization will strengthen U.S.-funded global agricultural innovation and build up the political will needed to end global hunger and malnutrition in our lifetime. However, we need more cosponsors of the bill in order to get a vote before the full Congress.

For more information on this issue:

• Fact Sheet: Feed the Future
• March Webinar: The Global Food Security Act

Watch for action alerts. For additional talking points, contact organizing@bread.org or call 800-822-7323.

Results: 2017 Offering of Letters: Doing Our Part to End Hunger

With the passage of the fiscal year 2018 spending bill, our 2017 Offering of Letters wraps up with a victory. Not only did we not see drastic cuts to anti-hunger programs, but thanks to your advocacy, we saw slight increases in summer EBT and food aid. In 2017, churches and individuals across the United States sent more than 176,000 letters, 164,000 emails, and made 32,000 calls to Congress, urging lawmakers to do their part and pass a budget that puts us on track to end hunger.

Activists in Action

When Southwest Pennsylvania Bread team leaders asked then-candidate Conor Lamb about his stance on anti-hunger programs earlier this year, they never expected he would be the guest speaker at their Offering of Letters workshop just a few months later.

Lamb, who recently won the special election to represent Pennsylvania's 18th district in the U.S. Congress, told the April 15 workshop participants that he supported a strong Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as part of  the farm bill. Joyce Rothermel and Myra Mann, Bread team co-chairs  and workshop organizers, said they thought the congressman had learned a lot about the farm bill by the time he spoke—an education that started on the campaign trail.

Mann was not impressed with Lamb during a January forum when she asked him what he would do for people experiencing hunger, if elected. She said his answer was brief and lacked depth. His response focused on school nutrition programs only, but she admits her question was phrased very generally.

Mann said Lamb needed to hear more about the importance of SNAP and the earned income tax credit (EITC). Mann's faith and her daughter's struggle to provide for her own family on only a $10 an hour nursing assistant job are the driving forces behind her advocacy.

SNAP is at risk under the new House Farm Bill proposal, making the issue urgent and legislation the newly-elected Lamb will vote on. The legislation imposes stricter work requirements that, if passed, would push more than 2 million people off the nutrition program.

"It makes me bristle," Mann said. "No one works harder than my daughter. She is burning it at both ends." Mann has not only seen first-hand the hard work it takes to survive on low-wages but says programs like SNAP and EITC keep her daughter's head above water.

Mann hoped Rothermel would have better luck getting Lamb to talk about SNAP when it was her turn at the microphone during his February Pittsburgh meet-and-greet.

Rothermel was prepared. She told Lamb that SNAP was under attack in the upcoming farm bill before asking if he would pledge, if elected, to work with anti-hunger advocates around food security. He made the pledge and this time he mentioned SNAP in his response.

Educating candidates about hunger before they are elected is a key part of Bread's I Vote to End Hunger campaign.

"I think it's critical to familiarize the candidates with the issues of food insecurity," Rothermel said. In fact, she sees it as an important void advocates should fill, especially when moving an urgent issue such as the House Farm Bill's threat against SNAP to the top of a candidate's priority list.

And that pledge Lamb made earned him an invitation to the Offering of Letters workshop organized by Mann and Rothermel. The idea for the invite came from Bread organizer Margaret Tran who reminded the women about Lamb's pledge.

So, they asked and he came.

"Elections are about educating potential members of Congress and setting the foundation for a long-term relationship," Tran said. "Joyce and Myra's persistence and dedication are a testament to how Bread leaders are the driving force behind our work to end hunger."

More Resources: Activist Tool Kit

The Activist Tool Kit is intended for new and current Bread grassroots hunger activists. It provides a set of how-to sheets for carrying out advocacy and fact sheets on the current issues Bread for the World is working on.

It's ideal as a starter toolkit for new Bread activists or as a set of updates for current activists. Form your own toolkit by printing out some or all of the sheets in the kit.

How-tos:

• How to Conduct an In-District Meeting with a Member of Congress (or the Staff)
• Effectively Using Public Meetings to Engage with Members of Congress
• Writing a Letter to the Editor of Your Local Newspaper
• #ForSuchATime Social Media Kit
• Conducting an Offering of Letters

Issues-related pieces:

• Hunger and Poverty State Fact Sheets
• Hunger by the Numbers (2016)
• Fact Sheet: Get the Facts About SNAP
• Budget 101
• Fact Sheet: Do Work Requirements in Public Programs Work?
• Budget Reconciliation 101
• Budget 101: Block Grants, Flexibility, and Per Capita Caps
• Immigration as a hunger issue
• Poverty-Focused Development Assistance (PFDA) 101
• The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program
• Fact Sheet: The Hunger-Medicaid Connection
• The Affordable Care Act 101
• Mass Incarceration and Over-Policing Fact Sheet
• Fact Sheet: Latino Community Hit Hard by Budget Cuts
• Hunger and Poverty in the Latino Community
• Hunger and Poverty in the African-American Community

Biblical resources:

• The Biblical Basis for Advocacy to End Hunger
• The Bible and Immigration Reform
• The Bible and Poverty-Focused Development Assistance
• The Bible and Mass Incarceration
• The Bible on Health as a Hunger Issue