Washington, D.C. – The country’s religious congregations will have to add $714,000 to their annual budgets each year for the next decade to make up for the drastic cuts found in President Trump’s federal fiscal year 2018 budget proposal, according to Bread for the World.
“There is no way our country’s 350,000 religious congregations can make up for the cuts in the services that help hungry, poor, and other vulnerable people,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “Congress should not justify budget cuts by saying that churches and charities can pick up the slack. They cannot.”
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the more than half -- or $2.5 trillion over 10 years -- of the Trump administration’s proposed fiscal year 2018 cuts will come from programs that help low- and moderate-income Americans.
“President Trump has proposed a budget that includes the largest cuts ever to programs assisting struggling American families,” Beckmann said. “The healthcare cuts and the fiscal year 2018 budget cuts – both of which are being negotiated in Congress -- are a double whammy for America’s struggling families.”
Bread for the World estimates that the healthcare cuts alone under the American Health Care Act will take away $2,000 a year in healthcare services from every man, woman, and child in or near poverty for the next 10 years.
Afghanistan would be considered likely to have high rates of hunger because at least two of the major causes of global hunger affect it—armed conflict and fragile governmental institutions.
Malnutrition is responsible for nearly half of all preventable deaths among children under 5. Every year, the world loses hundreds of thousands of young children and babies to hunger-related causes.
Bread for the World is calling on the Biden-Harris administration and Congress to build a better 1,000-Days infrastructure in the United States.
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in faith.” These words from Colossians 2:6 remind us of the faith that is active in love for our neighbors.
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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is designed to respond to changes in need, making it well suited to respond to crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bread for the World and its partners are asking Congress to provide $200 million for global nutrition.
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.