About Us

Our Mission

Bread members send letters and emails, make phone calls, and visit their members of Congress about legislation that addresses hunger in the U.S. and around the world. Bread equips its members to communicate with Congress and to work with others on advocacy. It educates members on hunger-related issues and inspires members to be legislative activists as a way of putting their Christian faith into action.

Bread works in partnership with churches, campuses, and other organizations to mobilize Christians and others in congressional districts and states.

Bread’s goal is to help end hunger by 2030. It believes that everyone must play a part in ending hunger, especially our federal government. We work to change the policies and conditions that allow hunger to persist. Bread seeks long-term solutions to hunger and advocates on legislation that addresses the root causes of hunger.

We have a track record of winning bipartisan legislation that helps hungry people feed their families. We are successful because our grassroots network of members and activists works in concert with national denominations, networks, and organizations supported by Bread’s staff in Washington, D.C., and around the country.

God’s grace moves us to build the political commitment needed to overcome hunger and poverty. We believe it is possible to end hunger in our time.

Building a Grassroots Network

From the very start, Bread has been a group effort. Its success has been made possible only because people of faith seized the opportunity to reach out to our nation’s decision makers for action against hunger.

“We began with a tiny seed of an idea, but the seed had life and, when planted, God gave growth,” recalls Simon.

Bread’s grassroots network was born with the launch of Project 500 — an effort to recruit and train 500 advocates. Many of those early advocates remain active Bread members today. And this network, which has grown exponentially since then, remains the engine of the organization.

Bread Grows in Experience, Expertise, and Reputation

Over the years, Bread’s Offering of Letters and other campaigns have won far-reaching changes for hungry and poor people. Bread’s members have written millions of letters to their members of Congress.

In 1991, Rev. David Beckmann succeeded Simon as president. Also a Lutheran pastor, Beckmann had worked for 15 years at the World Bank. Under his leadership, Bread has become increasingly more prominent, with a significantly bigger membership, budget, and staff.

On July 1, 2020, Rev. Eugene Cho succeeded Beckmann as president. Cho, an Evangelical Christian, is the founder and visionary of One Day’s Wages – a grassroots movement of people, stories, and actions to alleviate extreme global poverty. He is also the founder and former Senior Pastor of Quest Church in Seattle, Washington.

Bread has also branched out over the years, establishing two affiliates:

• Bread for the World Institute, established in 1975, provides policy analysis on hunger and strategies to end it. Each year since 1990, the Institute has published a highly regarded Hunger Report, an authoritative analysis of hunger trends and a resource for hunger statistics.
• The Alliance to End Hunger, established in 2001, engages diverse organizations—including Jewish and Muslim groups, charities, universities, and corporations—to build the public and political will to end hunger at home and abroad.