An
effective
response to hunger must combine private and
public actions, neither can do the job
alone. Christians have worked well in the
private arena, Bread for the World provides
a means where Christians can work equally
well for effective public policies in the
fight against hunger...
This is an interfaith, family friendly event
and all are welcome. Please use public
transportation or car pool to event as there
is limited parking at the event
venue.
The Portland Metro CROP Hunger Walk is a 2.7
mile route through downtown Portland.
Refreshments and restrooms will be available
at First Christian Church of Portland, the
beginning and end of the Walk route.
Seventy-five percent of the funds raised will
support the international relief and
development programs of CWS. Twenty-five percent
will be split equally between Ecumenical
Ministries of Oregon's Northeast Emergency Food
Program at Luther Memorial and the Oregon Food Bank. Please
give generously!
Senate Passes Unemployment Insurance. Now
Push the House!
Thank you! After a series
of attempts and votes, the Senate finally
passed a bipartisan bill to reinstate and
extend emergency unemployment benefits.
Together, Bread members generated 1,045
calls and 24,600 emails to the Senate.
Your advocacy made the
difference, including the
extraordinary efforts by over 100
religious leaders in Illinois
who wrote to Sen. Kirk about their concern
for those left without unemployment aid.
Thanks to these efforts, Sen. Kirk voted yes
on final passage of the bill.
How did your senators
vote? Find
out here. If your senators
voted yes, please call (800-826-3688) and
thank them! If your senators voted no, share
your disappointment.
With victory in the
Senate, the fight moves to the House. Your
voice is instrumental in pushing this bill
into law. As Roll
Call reported, there
may not be enough House "members who are
feeling significant electoral pressure in
their districts" to extend unemployment
insurance. One U.S. representative said that
extending emergency unemployment assistance
"will encourage unemployment." Prove this
thinking wrong!
Please call
(800-826-3688) or email
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici and Sen. Jeff
Merkley and Sen. Ron Wyden and urge a vote
to extend unemployment insurance.
More than 2 million
people have been cut off long-term
unemployment assistance. Unemployed workers
shouldn't have to wait another day for this
vital aid that enables them to continue
searching for a job and put food on the
table.
Please take just a minute
to follow up with your senators on their
votes — accountability is critical! Then
make one call or send
an email to Rep. Suzanne
Bonamici and Sen. Jeff Merkley and Sen. Ron
Wyden and press for a vote to extend
emergency unemployment insurance.
As we saw in the Senate
this week, your calls, emails, and prayers
make a real difference.
Bread for the World's
2014 Offering of letters Campaign to Reform
U.S. Food Aid
For many decades, the United States
has been a global leader economically,
diplomatically, and militarily. The same
is true in the humanitarian arena. Our
federal government often sends assistance
in the form of food aid. Now there is an
opportunity to reform the federal
government's food-aid programs so that
funds are used more effectively and
efficiently.
It is time to update the government's
1950s practices to enable it to respond
more flexibly and faster in a 21st
century, globalized world. Changes to the
food-aid programs would allow food aid to
benefit 17 million more people each year —
at no additional cost to U.S. taxpayers.
This year's Offering of Letters
focuses on much-needed reform to U.S. food
aid. Learn
about our role in global aid, and
why reform is so critical. Then, write
to Congress and urge your
representatives to enact much needed
reforms to our global food aid programs.
Together we can change policy and
ensure continued, improved assistance to
millions of hungry people around the
world. Please contact me if you want help
organizing your offering or if you would
like a speaker.
After two years of
negotiations, the new farm
bill was signed into law this
month. Unfortunately, it contained
$8.6 billion in cuts to the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program (SNAP), a reduction that
puts 78,000 Oregon families at
greater risk for hunger by reducing
their monthly SNAP benefits. This
cut came on top of an earlier $5
billion cut in November 2013.
Many of you may have seen the
letter in
the Statesman Journal that
we co-authored with Oregon Food
Bank and Marion-Polk Food Share,
describing our concerns about the
farm bill legislation.
We
will continue to make the case in
Oregon, and with our elected
leaders in Washington D.C., for
why SNAP, and other federal
nutrition programs, are critical
to addressing hunger.
We want to thank everyone who
contacted their Congressional
representatives and the President to
voice opposition to these damaging
cuts. Your advocacy helped let our
delegation know that SNAP is a
critical food resource for Oregon
families. Please continue to follow
our federal advocacy work by becoming a
partner or joining us on Facebook
where we share action alerts and
updates.
Documenting Hunger: "A Place at the Table"
How is it possible that people in this
country continue to go hungry, despite our
abundance of food?
A Place at the Table, a new
eye-opening documentary, answers that
question through the lives of three
people. Barbie, a young Philadelphia
mother, fights to make ends meet and break
the cycle of poverty. Rosie, an
imaginative fifth-grader, tries to
distract her mind from hunger pangs as she
learns and grows in rural Colorado. And
Tremonica, a sunny Mississippi
second-grader, struggles with health
problems caused by the poor nutritional
value of the food that her mother can
afford. Their stories reveal the depth of
the hunger crisis in America and the
factors that drive it.
The film also shows that we have made
progress against hunger in the past—and
that we can do it again.
We are pleased that the launch of A
Place at the Table coincides with
Bread for the World's 2013 Offering of
Letters. Together, they magnify our focus
on ending hunger through changes in public
policy. Our association with Participant
Media does not end when the film hits
theaters across the country. We are also
partners on the social action campaign
accompanying the film.
Through A Place at the Table's
social action campaign, Bread
members have more avenues for action — at
both the local and the national level.
Bread for the World and Participant Media
will regularly ask our advocates to take
action throughout this joint campaign.
Bread articles cover issues
and legislation that affects
hungry and poor people, our work
in the field, and the advocacy of
our members. Published eight times
a year.
This newsletter is sent three
times a year. Legacy of Hope
offers information on financial
planning and tells the stories of
individuals and families who
support our work to end hunger.
A Circle of
Protection: A Statement on Why We Need
to Protect
Programs for the Poor
In the face of
historic deficits, the nation faces
unavoidable choices about how to
balance needs and resources and
allocate burdens and sacrifices. These
choices are economic, political—and
moral. As a community of faith, we
believe the moral measure of the
debate is how the most poor and
vulnerable people fare.
We look at every budget
proposal from the bottom up—how it treats
those called “the least of these” (Matthew
25:45). They do not have powerful lobbies,
but they have the most compelling claim on
our consciences and common resources. The
faith community has an obligation to help
them be heard, to join with others to
insist that programs that serve the most
vulnerable in our nation and around the
world are protected. We know from our
experience serving hungry and homeless
people that these programs meet basic
human needs and protect the lives and
dignity of the most vulnerable. We believe
that God is calling us to pray, fast, give
alms and to speak for justice.
As
faith leaders, we are committed to
fiscal responsibility and shared
sacrifice. We are also committed to
resist budget cuts that undermine the
lives, dignity, and rights of poor and
vulnerable people. Therefore, we join
with others to form a Circle of
Protection around programs that meet
the essential needs of hungry and poor
people at home and abroad.
1. The
nation needs to substantially reduce
future deficits, but not at the expense
of hungry and poor people.
2.
Funding focused on reducing poverty
should not be cut. It should be made as
effective as possible, but not cut.
3. We
urge our leaders to protect and improve
poverty-focused development and
humanitarian assistance to promote a
better, safer world.
4.
National leaders must review and
consider tax revenues, military
spending, and entitlements in the search
for ways to share sacrifice and cut
deficits.
5. A
fundamental task is to create jobs and
spur economic growth. Decent jobs at
decent wages are the best path out of
poverty, and restoring growth is a
powerful way to reduce deficits.
6. The
budget debate has a central moral
dimension. People of faith are asking
how we protect “the least of these.”
“How do we share sacrifice?” "How do we
make 'Justice flow...'"
7. As
believers, we turn to God with prayer
and fasting, to ask for guidance as our
nation makes decisions about our
priorities as a people.
8. God
continues to shower our nation and the
world with blessings. As believers, we
are rooted in the love of God. Our task
is to share these blessings with love
and justice and with a special priority
for those who are poor.
Budgets
are moral documents, and how we reduce
future deficits are historic and
defining moral choices. As faith
leaders, we urge Congress and the
administration to give moral priority
to programs that protect the life and
dignity of poor and vulnerable people
in these difficult times… It is the
vocation and obligation of the church
to speak and act on behalf of “the
least of these.” This is our calling,
and we strive to be faithful in
carrying out this mission.
"Speak up
for those who cannot speak for
themselves, for the rights of all who
are destitute. Speak up and judge
fairly; defend the rights of the poor
and the needy" Proverbs 31:8-9
Local resources
Bread
Oregon Blog: Latest Posts (click the title below
to see the article)
Oregon Bread
Team: Join the Bread
team and get more involved in
contacting our representatives about
hunger issues and spreading the
story of Bread for the World to
churches in your area (Find
out more).
In 2005, the latest year for which data
are available, 1.4 billion people in developing
countries lived in extreme
poverty—on less than $1.25 a day—down
from 1.9 billion in 1981.
In the United States,
14.5 percent of households struggle to
put food on the table. More than one in
four children is at risk of hunger.
We can end hunger in
our time. Everyone, including
government, must do their part.
By making
our voices heard in Congress, we make
our laws more fair and compassionate to
people in need.
Bread for the World is a
collective Christian voice
urging our nation's decision makers to
end hunger at home and abroad.
God's grace in Jesus Christ moves us to
help our neighbors, whether they live in
the next house, the next state, or the
next continent.
Confronting the problem of hunger can
seem overwhelming.
What can one person do? Plenty.
Bread for the World members write
personal letters and emails and meet
with our members of Congress.
Working through our churches, campuses,
and other organizations, we engage more
people in advocacy.
Each year, Bread for the World invites
churches across the country to take up a
nationwide Offering
of Letters to Congress on an issue
that is important to hungry and poor
people.
Speak out for those who cannot speak, for
the rights of all the destitute. Speak
out, judge righteously, defend the rights
of the poor and needy. (Proverbs 31:8-9)
Bread for the World is a collective
Christian voice urging our nation’s
decision makers to end hunger at home and
abroad. Our partners represent a wide
spectrum of church organizations and faith
communities.
Everyone—including government—must do
their part to end hunger. With the stroke
of a pen, policies are made that redirect
millions of dollars and affect millions of
lives. Make your voices heard in Congress
by speaking out for the needs of hungry
and poor people.
Bread for the World is a collective
Christian voice urging our nation's
decision makers to end hunger at home and
abroad. When we turn our faith into
action, God uses our voices. Again and
again, we win help and opportunity for
hungry and poor people.
Bread for the World empowers faith
communities, campus groups, and other
organizations to end hunger. Are you
interested in getting involved in your
local community?
After two years of
negotiations, the 
