Policy Change
This is an important time to get involved and make your voice heard. Congress and the president are making major decisions that could seriously harm individuals and families living in poverty and at risk of hunger. Bread for the World’s policy agenda focuses on the issues that will put our country and world on track to ending hunger by 2030.
These are some of the issues that Congress or the administration need to address in order to accomplish this goal.
A Budget to End Hunger by 2030
Right now, the biggest threat to people struggling with hunger and poverty continues to be the threat of large budget cuts. Your advocacy is critical in ensuring that spending bills provide the strongest support possible for anti-hunger and anti-poverty efforts in the United States and around the world. Bread for the World's 2018 Offering of Letters campaign asks Congress to invest in and protect key programs that help improve the lives of men, women, and children facing hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world.
Increase funding for global maternal and child nutrition
The U.S. government plays a crucial role in the fight to end malnutrition among mothers and children overseas. Our nation’s continued commitment is key to ending this global scourge. Bread for the World wants Congress to increase funding for the nutrition and health of mothers, newborns, and young children. Bread and its partners believe that more funding for nutrition programs is needed in fiscal year 2017. Increasing U.S. investment in global maternal and child nutrition is central to successful development and helps improve the potential of millions of people. This was the focus of Bread's 2016 Offering of Letters Campaign.
Criminal Justice Reform
There is growing bipartisan momentum for reforming the U.S. criminal justice and prison systems. Formerly incarcerated people are far more likely to face hunger and poverty. Many employers refuse to hire people with criminal records. Laws ban people with various convictions from accessing certain safety-net programs. Without income and without access to federal benefits, returning citizens are vulnerable to hunger and recidivism.
International Food-Aid
In overseas emergencies, our federal government often sends assistance in the form of food aid. While food is an important tool to saving millions of lives each year, it is time to update the government’s programs in this area to enable them to respond better in a 21st century, globalized world. Reforms to the food-aid programs would allow food aid to benefit tens of millions more people each year—at no additional cost to U.S. taxpayers.
Immigration
One of the major reasons people leave their home countries is to escape poverty and improve their livelihoods. While reducing poverty may not be the primary goal of most contemporary immigration policy-reform efforts, it should certainly be one of its clear goals. Undocumented immigrants suffer disproportionately from food insecurity and poverty once they arrive in the United States. Lack of legal status contributes to the economic insecurity and exploitation of undocumented immigrants. It also means that they have limited access to the social safety net in the United States. Many undocumented people, specifically children, only know the U.S. as home. That is why reforming our broken immigration system must include a responsible pathway to earned citizenship.
Learn More About These Issues
Bread for the World’s policy agenda focuses on the most timely issues that impact hunger. Use the links below to learn more about how the following issues impact people who experience hunger.
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.
Fact Sheet: Fortified for Life. How the U.S. Government Supports Global Nutrition.
Good nutrition is a critical part of ensuring that all human beings can use their bodies and minds to live an active life and reach their full potential.
¿Por qué las familias están abandonando Centroamérica?
Las personas que toman la decisión de dejar su hogar y venir a Estados Unidos, generalmente han tenido muy pocas opciones. Factores más allá de su control han provocado que sus circunstancias estén marcadas por hambre y violencia para poder quedarse.
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
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.
Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2017
Unnecessarily long prison sentences, combined with the lack of rehabilitative programs for people in prison, exacerbate hunger, poverty, and existing inequalities.
Overly harsh mandatory minimum prison sentences have contributed to the rapid increase of our country’s prison population. The...