In Memory of Pat Pelham: A Life Sown in Justice, Reaped in Hope

At Bread for the World, we often say that ending hunger is not only possible – it’s a moral and spiritual imperative. Pat Pelham embodied that belief.

A long-time Bread leader, tireless advocate, and woman of deep, abiding faith, Pat passed away on August 1, 2025. Yet the seeds she planted – in her church, in the halls of Congress, and in the lives of people facing hunger around the world – continue to bear fruit that will nourish generations. Her legacy lives on in lives nourished, voices empowered, and policies transformed.

This journey began in the quiet of morning prayer. A young mother in Birmingham, Alabama, Pat felt stirred by God to do something about the widespread hunger she saw in Africa. With her small children at home and no path to go abroad, she turned to her pastor and asked: What can I do here?

That faithful question led her to anti-hunger advocacy.

Pat learned about Bread for the World at a meeting that Father Martin Muller convened at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church. She soon connected with Elaine Van Cleave, Roger Scott McCullough, Bobby Cardwell, and others at their shared church home, Independent Presbyterian Church. Together, they began engaging their congregation in world hunger.

In 1998, the Jubilee campaign, a global push to cancel the crushing debt of the world’s poorest nations, was gaining momentum. Bread and U.S. church bodies helped draft legislation to bring the issue before Congress. Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus was named chair of the international subcommittee of the House Banking Committee – the subcommittee where any debt relief bill would have to start.

So, Bread’s president picked up the phone and called Pat Pelham.

Pat, Elaine, Roger, and Bobby went to Washington, D.C. with a petition signed by 400 people. Pat began to win over Congressman Bachus with her first words. “As a mom,” she told him, “It pains me to know that so many children go hungry. I’ve never found a way to do something about it – but I believe debt relief could lead to better health and education for lots of children.” Congressman Bachus now says openly that he knew little about international poverty or debt at the time. But he listened – and was profoundly moved by the heartfelt concern of his constituents.

Back in Birmingham after the meeting, Pat and her fellow advocates got to work. They organized events – now celebrating Bachus’ leadership – got the local newspaper to cover the issue, educated and involved their church, and recruited 20 congregations to write letters to Congress. They built political will.

When the Banking Committee held its hearing on debt relief, Rep. Bachus, a devout Southern Baptist, made his position clear: “If we don’t write off some of this debt, poor people in these countries will be suffering for the rest of their lives. And we’ll be suffering a lot longer than that.” He persuaded other conservative colleagues in the House of Representatives to back U.S. participation in global debt relief. Bachus later said he had come to see the world differently because of the church members from Birmingham who approached him about Jubilee.

By 2000, the U.S. had officially committed to international debt relief. When President Bill Clinton signed the legislation, he publicly credited Congressman Bachus. But many of us know that story began with Pat Pelham and a circle of faithful, persistent citizens in Alabama.

Bread’s former president David Beckman put it like this: “It’s hard to imagine how the debts of poor countries would have been reduced if Pat hadn’t been moved by her prayers to push for an unlikely change in U.S. policies.”

The results of Jubilee were staggering: More than 25 countries saw their debts reduced by over $1 billion annually, freeing resources to send children, especially girls, to school and to stock rural clinics with medicine. Pat’s faith in a God of abundance and her belief that ordinary people can change the world helped make those outcomes possible.

Pat served two terms on Bread’s Board of Directors, including years as Vice Chair. She and her husband Gayle have for decades been faithful supporters of anti-hunger advocacy with Bread through prayer, generous financial gifts, and an enduring commitment to justice. Pat fought hunger on many fronts – through her church’s food pantry, a mission trip to Kenya, and mentoring other mothers in her congregation.

She lived out what she believed: that hunger is not inevitable, that political will can be cultivated, that justice can be pursued through policy, and that even small acts of compassion can echo across continents.

Pat’s life reminds us that spiritual conviction can find expression in public life. That a quiet voice can influence policy. That the arc of history bends when someone decides not to shrug and walk away, but to act.

We give thanks for Pat Pelham’s life – for her witness, her wisdom, and her unshakable hope. She sowed generously, and the harvest – thirty-, sixty-, a hundredfold – will endure.

May her memory be a blessing.

May her legacy be a charge.

And may we, like Pat, be generous sowers – doing what is right, simply because it is right.