Activist Corner
Welcome to the Activist Corner. We update this page regularly with the latest information, tools, and resources, so make sure to visit weekly.
Act Now
2019 Offering of Letters
- Call (800-826-3688) or email your senators and urge them to contact the offices of Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) and request to become an original cosponsor of the Senate’s version of the Global Nutrition Resolution.
- The legislation recognizes the importance of continued U.S. leadership to accelerate global progress against maternal and child malnutrition. In the coming weeks, Collins and Coons will introduce a senate resolution recognizing the importance of continued U.S. leadership to accelerate global progress against maternal and child malnutrition. Urge your senator to become an original cosponsor of the resolution, before its introduction, to help build support for accelerating progress toward ending hunger and malnutrition.
For more information on this issue:
- Global Nutrition Resolution Recognizes Importance of U.S. Leadership
- The 2019 Offering of Letters: Better Nutrition, Better Tomorrow
Watch for action alerts. For additional talking points, contact organizing@bread.org or call 800-822-7323.
New 2019 Offering of Letters Resources
Find the most up-to-date sample letter here (DOCX).
If you are looking for a video to introduce the 2019 Offering of Letters to your church or organization, consider using a video short from Rev. David Beckmann of his recent trip to Ethiopia. You can find the video here, or view all of the video shorts from his travels in Ethiopia and Guatemala here. You can also view “Accelerating Global Nutrition: Lessons from Nepal,” which is a short video that lays out the crisis of malnutrition and how your advocacy is making a difference.
Many of you have been asking where you should report your Offering of Letters events. You can report letters here with the online feedback form.
For leaders interested in conducting an Offering of Letters workshop or adult forum on global nutrition, the organizing department has developed a PowerPoint presentation that you can be accessed here or in the Offering of Letters toolkit.
Publishing a letter-to-the-editor (LTE) helps educate members of Congress about hunger issues. If you would like to write an LTE on global nutrition, find a template here.
August Recess
August recess means opportunities to engage with your members of Congress. You can invite them to your local event or to take a tour of your church pantry. You can schedule an in-district visit with them or attend one of their town hall meetings.
Regardless of your plans, it’s never too early to start. The Senate begins its August recess the first week of August. The House is scheduled to break for August recess July 26.
Your members will be in their home districts and states and looking to hear from constituents all month. Make sure ending hunger is part of the conversation. Contact your organizer for more ideas and talking points.
Stay Informed
Get Fresh Bread Updates by Email
This email newsletter updates Bread for the World activists on hunger-related happenings in Congress. It is produced weekly while Congress is in session.
Activists in Action
Spotlight: Drayton Cullen
When Drayton Cullen was younger, the only thing he knew about hunger was the bread box at church. As he grew older and learned more about what it is, he—like many people—didn’t think ending hunger was possible. That changed during his spring break in March when he attended a Bread for the World board meeting in Washington, D.C., with his grandfather, Bob Terry, a Bread board member.
“Before my time with [Bread], I considered ending hunger to be a somewhat unrealistic expectation,” Cullen said. “However, Bread for the World opened my eyes to the many ways in which we can all participate to achieve it.”
After learning about Bread and the goal of ending hunger by 2030, Cullen hosted an Offering of Letters workshop at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama and invited classmates to participate.
A classics and history major at Samford, Cullen just completed his junior year and is preparing for an internship working on public policy issues in Alabama. Cullen is also considering attending graduate school to earn a master’s degree in public policy.
“Bread for the World is an organization of intelligent, well equipped, and caring leaders who are instrumental in the battle against hunger,” he said. “I am blessed to have met them as they have completely transformed my perspective on the likelihood of ending hunger.”
He added: “Ending hunger by 2030 is a goal that our nation should strive for, our communities should be aware of, and we as a Christian people should fight to achieve.”
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
- Conducting an Offering of Letters
Issues-related pieces:
- Hunger and Poverty State Fact Sheets
- Fact Sheet: Why We Need $250 Million for Global Nutrition Programs
- Hunger by the Numbers (2017)
- Fact Sheet: Fortified for Life. How the U.S. Government Supports Global Nutrition
- Briefing Paper: A Multi-Sectoral Approach to Nutrition. Assessing USAID’s Progress
- Poverty-Focused Development Assistance (PFDA) 101
- The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program
- Getting to Zero Hunger by 2030: Race, Poverty, and Hunger
- Mass Incarceration: A Major Cause of Hunger
- Border Policy: Addressing Root Causes of Hunger and Immigration
- Fact Sheet: Hunger and Poverty in the Indigenous Community
- Fact Sheet: Hunger and Poverty in the African American Community
- Fact Sheet: Hunger and Poverty in the Latino Community
Biblical resources:
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Please let us know what suggestions you have for this page and how we can assist you. Email us at organizing@bread.org or call 800-822-7323.
Tools
from our Resource Library
For Education
U.S. Hunger and Poverty State Fact Sheets
These fact sheets provide a snapshot of hunger and poverty in the United States and in each state plus Washington, D.C.
Briefing Paper: A Multi-Sectoral Approach to Nutrition. Assessing USAID's Progress.
Better nutrition is a necessary component of a country’s capacity to achieve development goals such as economic growth and improved public health.
The U.S. Contribution to Ending Global Malnutrition
Worldwide, maternal and child malnutrition causes millions of deaths each year. In some countries, it holds entire generations back from reaching their economic potential.
For Faith
Unity Declaration on Racism and Poverty
A diverse body of Christian leaders calls on the churches and Congress to focus on the integral connection.
Dear Members of Congress,
As the president and Congress are preparing their plans for this year, almost 100 church leaders—from all the families of U.S. Christianity—are...
In Times Like These … A Pan-African Christian Devotional for Public Policy Engagement
This devotional guide invites deepened relationship with and among Pan-African people and elected leaders in the mission to end hunger and poverty.
Sermon by David Beckmann at Duke University Chapel
Remarks delivered October 1, 2017 at Duke University Chapel in Chapel Hill in North Carolina.
Thank you for inviting me to preach here at Duke University Chapel. And I especially want to thank the Bread for the World members who have come this morning.
Bruce Puckett urged...
For Advocacy
Fact Sheet: Why We Need $250 Million for Global Nutrition Programs
Bread for the World and its partners are asking Congress to provide $250 million for global nutrition in the fiscal year 2020 budget.
U.S. Hunger and Poverty State Fact Sheets
These fact sheets provide a snapshot of hunger and poverty in the United States and in each state plus Washington, D.C.
Fact Sheet: Hunger by the Numbers
In 2017, 11.8 percent of households in the U.S.—40 million people—were food-insecure, meaning that they were unsure at some point during the year about how they would provide for their next meal.