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May 2013 Newsletter
By her second birthday, a healthy toddler is talking, walking, and steadily moving toward a life of opportunity. Parents around the world marvel at the phenomenal progress that their child makes from the moment that the mother discovers that she is pregnant to that special birthday one thousand days later.
Nearly one thousand days ago a global initiative to improve maternal and child nutrition was born. As Bread for the World prepares for our 2013 National Gathering—a biennial convergence of grassroots anti-hunger advocates—Bread for the World Institute is celebrating, taking stock of, and looking at next steps for the 1,000 Days Partnership and the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement.
- Act Now: The 2013 Farm Bill
- Policy Focus: Make Sure that Hungry People Have a Place at the Negotiating Table
- Advocacy in Action: Ecumenical Advocacy Days Provide Prologue to National Gathering
- On Faith: Grateful for Each Tiny Plateful
- Reforming Food Aid to Improve Maternal and Child Nutrition
- Helping the Church Be the Church
- The Biblical Basis for Advocacy to End Hunger
- Bread Slices
- Field Focus: Improving Maternal Health in Sierra Leone, One Mango at a Time
April 2013 e-Newsletter
As you prepare your taxes, take some time to reflect on where your dollars are going. Many of those dollars go to pay for the infrastructure that holds us together as a nation. Very few go toward helping people in dire need. But those few dollars may hold the most value. Imagine what one dollar’s worth of food means to a senior citizen with an empty cupboard. Think of what a healthy breakfast means to a fifth-grader who would otherwise have to learn arithmetic on an empty stomach.
- Policy Focus: A Tale of Two Budgets
- Act Now! Tell Congress to Stop the Sequester
- New Bread Immigration Principles Focus on Ending Hunger
- Barbie Izquierdo Fights Hunger
- Field Focus: Myama Against the Odds
- Advocacy in Action: The First Step Toward Justice
- Hunger Free Summit Synergizes Anti-Hunger Efforts
- On Faith: Advocacy Is About Relationships
- Every Member Counts: Please Renew!
- Help End Hunger Every Month
- Kids Can Help Set the Table
March 2013 Newsletter
The 2013 Offering of Letters, "A Place at the Table" shares its theme with a major new documentary about hunger in America, also titled A Place at the Table. Both urge our national leaders to look around the figurative table and see who’s missing.
- Background Paper: Making Room at the Table
- Watch, Learn, and Discuss: A Place at the Table
- Act Now! Petition the President. Write to Congress.
- Conduct an Offering of Letters: Set the Table for Hungry People
- Exodus from Hunger and Poverty: Immigration Reform
- Advocacy in Action: How WIC Got Tara Marks to Law School
- On Faith: Lent Is a Time to Focus on Civic Engagement
- Member Profile: We Remember Ann and Gere Howkins
- Policy Focus: The Sequester
- Join Us at Our National Gathering, June 8-11
- Now Is the Time to Renew Your Annual Membership
February 2013 e-Newsletter
On March 1, 2013, Bread for the World will be setting places at two tables.
One is "A Place at the Table: Bread for the World’s 2013 Offering of Letters."
The other is a new feature-length documentary, A Place at the Table, which shows the persistence of hunger in the United States.
Together, the two "Tables" represent a united effort to end hunger by raising awareness and advocating for policy changes. By coordinating our Offering and Letters with the social action campaign of the movie, Bread for the World will be promoting a national dialogue about how to best secure the leadership, commitment, and unity to end hunger in our country and abroad.
- Policy Focus: Staring Down the Sequester
- Act Now!
- Order Your 2013 Offering of Letters Kit
- A Hunger for Advocacy
- Hunger at Home
- Hunger in the Classroom
- Member Profile: Eleanor Butt Crook
- On Faith: You Will Get It Back
- Field Focus: Helping Farmers Feed Their Families
- Lenten Resources: Forty Days for 1,000 Days
- Lenten Prayers for Hungry People
- Register for the Hunger Free Communities Summit
January - February 2013 Newsletter
Resilience and innovation. These two words perhaps best describe the work of Bread for the World over the past three years. December 2012 marked the completion of Bread’s most recent three-year plan, our fifth such plan since we started the practice in 1998. The completion of the plan presents an opportunity to look back on what we have accomplished and gird ourselves for the challenges ahead.
From 2010-2012, Bread for the World met or surpassed most of its benchmarks, as evidenced by its annual organization-wide evaluation. The assessment, which is handled by the Institute, was developed in 2007 with the help of the Center for Nonprofit Strategies. It is based on how Bread for the World and its affiliates impact the lives of hungry and poor people at home and abroad.
- Successes During an Unproductive Congress
- Act Now: Urge Our Leaders to End Hunger
- On Faith: Epiphany: Exercising Conscience
- Policy Focus: On the Other Side of the Cliff
- Bread Slices: Why Development Works
- Member Profile: New York City Gala
December 2012 e-Newsletter
The people have spoken, and we have elected our leader for the next four years. But as President Barack Obama sets his priorities for his second term, we need to remind him of his election promise to offer help and opportunity to the 22 percent of American children who live in poverty and the nearly 1 billion people worldwide who lack basic necessities.
As scripture encourages us (1 Timothy 2:1-2*), please join us in prayer for our leader, especially during this season of Advent. President Obama's second inauguration on Jan. 21 provides an occasion to articulate another prayer, one modeled after David’s supplication for Solomon. Psalm 72, the "Coronation Psalm," provides guidance for our leader, asking that he "defend the cause of the poor of the people [and] give deliverance to the needy."
- Budget Proposals Do Not Protect Poor People
- Pray for the President
- Understanding Bread's Campaigns
- Bread Members Cultivate Growth at World Food Prize Event
- Act Now!
- Bread Slices
- Perspectives on Hunger: Nourishing Young Brains and Bodies in Rural Honduras
- From the Institute: Bread for the World "Scales Up" Advocacy on Nutrition
- Member Profile: Paul Theiss and Nancy Satterford
- On Faith: New Wineskins for New Wine
- Save the Dates
- It's Not Too Late to Order Bread Christmas Cards
November - December 2012 Newsletter
In a few weeks, the journey of the Magi will end when they find Jesus Christ in a manger in Bethlehem. Like the Magi, we have traveled for many days in our quest to eliminate hunger in our world. Throughout our trek, we have stayed focused on our guiding star — Jesus' charge that we take care of "the least of these."
Since June, my last report to you, we have continued to forestall major cuts to programs that protect hungry and poor people. We continue to press on with our 2012 Offering of Letters campaign, "Expanding the Circle of Protection," despite the political polarization in an election year.
- Act Now!
- Walking in the Footsteps of the Magi
- On Faith: You Are Called to Be a Faithful Advocate
- Bread Slices
- Policy Focus: Anti-Hunger Programs and the Lame Duck Session
- Member Profile: Michigan Bread Members Demonstrate Community Responsibility
- From the Field: Humanizing Hunger
September - October 2012 Newsletter
This fall, voters face important questions about the kind of nation we want the United States to be. One of the blessings of this year’s general election is that federal budget issues are in the spotlight more than ever, creating greater opportunities for a national conversation about what it will take to end hunger and poverty. This election provides each of us with a calling to speak out about the importance of funding vital food assistance and poverty programs.
- Act Now!
- Elections Matter
- On Faith: Making Real the Presence of Christ in the 21st Century
- Bread Slices
- Policy Focus: Preparing for the Lame Duck Session: Help Set an Anti-Poverty Agenda for 2013
- Member Profile: Father John Fitzgerald
- From the Field: Speaking for Those Who Can't Speak for Themselves: A Hunger Justice Leader Finds Her Voice
July - August 2012 Newsletter
In the last six months, Bread for the World members, staff, and people of faith have successfully prevented massive budget cuts to programs vital to hungry and poor people. "We created a circle of protection around these programs and now we must maintain these protections especially as the 112th Congress winds up its lame duck session in the fall," said Rev. David Beckmann, Bread’s president.
Phone calls, personal visits, numerous Offerings of Letters, and personal emails have consistently told members of Congress that they should not balance the budget on the backs of hungry and poor people.
- Act Now!
- Raising Our Voices Louder This Fall
- Learning to Advocate With Hungry People: A Prophetic Call to Unity
- Bread Slices
- Taking Preemptive Action: Advocacy Before the Lame-Duck Session
- Member Profile: Jana Prescott
- Hunger Justice Leaders: The Future of Advocacy
- Board Voting
May-June 2012 Newsletter
We’ve accomplished much over the last six months, especially in preventing massive cuts to programs vital to hungry and poor people. And—for the first time in history—a sitting president delivered a major speech on hunger, a clear sign that global hunger and malnutrition has moved higher in the administration’s list of priorities.
- Our Victories in the Last Six Months
- Join Bread Activists for Lobby Day 2012
- On Faith: My Ancestors’ Stories
- Policy Focus: Harsh Cuts Would Devastate Programs
- Member Profile: Pam and Russell De Young
- From the Field: The Power of Bread Teams
- Bread Slices: New Maternal and Child Nutrition Toolkit
- Background Paper: Ending Chronic Hunger Emergencies: The Role of Food Aid
Join us June 8-11 in Washington, D.C., for the National Gathering 
