Climate change figures prominently in the ministry of Pastor Sarah Robinson of Audubon Park Church in Orlando, Florida. It’s also an important part of her involvement with Bread for the World.
As a pastor, Robinson views climate change through the lens of creation care. Creation care—stewardship of God’s creation—is an integral part of Christian discipleship, and climate change is a quintessential failure to fulfill stewardship responsibilities.
The ever-worsening devastation caused by climate change has made it one of the top causes of global hunger (another is conflict). Reversing the spike in global hunger of the past several years, particularly since 2020, will require slowing climate change and enabling people to adapt to its impacts.
Not long after she was installed as pastor at Audubon Park Church in 2013, Robinson was invited to participate in Bread for the World’s Hunger Justice Leaders Program. She was already a rising star in the Evangelical Covenant Church. The Hunger Justice Leaders Program was established to cultivate young anti-hunger leaders from around the nation. Robinson is among the many Hunger Justice Leaders “alumni” who have stayed involved with Bread as committed anti-hunger advocates in their communities.
Living in Florida, Robinson has been witnessing firsthand the accelerating effects of climate change and the resulting consequences for food security in her community. Audubon Park Church has established a vegetable garden on its property, which enables it to provide healthy foods to households in the community who struggle to afford enough on their own. Both globally and locally, the people who have the least access to healthy food are also the people who are first to suffer from the impacts of climate change.
From her earliest involvement with Bread, Robinson has been encouraging the organization to highlight the impact of climate change on hunger. She is delighted to see Bread doing that in the 2023 Offering of Letters campaign on the farm bill, which is up for another five-year reauthorization by Congress. Bread is championing policies that would reduce food loss and waste in the U.S. food system. This is an important part of farm bill advocacy – not only because food that goes to waste contributes significantly to climate change, but also because much of the food that would otherwise be lost can be rescued by hunger relief organizations and distributed to families that are struggling to put food on the table.
In October 2022, Bread for the World invited Robinson to participate in a Convocation on Climate and Hunger in Nairobi, Kenya. The convocation included Christian leaders from Africa, Europe, and North America. Robinson helped to write the statement that summed up the commitment made by participants in the Convocation.
“As Christians,” the statement reads, “we share a fierce resolve to stand and work together to end the hunger crisis made worse by climate instability, to renew God’s creation, and to bring our planet into balance, forming a beloved community in which all of creation can thrive.”
Todd Post is senior domestic policy advisor, Policy and Research Institute, with Bread for the World.
