Presentation

Introduction and Thanks (who am I)

What is Hunger

1. Severe Hunger Starvation: Immediate Life Threatening, visible hunger.
   • The usual cause is war, sometimes famine/natural disaster.
   • Represents small portion of the world hungry.
2. Chronic Hunger Chronic Malnourishment: Invisible, slow killer.
   Body suffers deficiency in calories or other major nutrients most of the time.
   Facts: 850m - 1:6 poor, 1B<$1/day extreme poverty, 1.6B<$2/day moderate poverty
   Who: Asia>#, Africa>%. Rural/ Urban Slums
   Effects:
   • Weakness - Reduced ability to work: Cant earn a sufficient income to support family.
   • Disease - Shortened lifespan. Big 6: tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/AIDS, measles, pneumonia and diarrheal disease. Kill 14m/yr (treatable/preventable). Maternal/Infant mortality 30k/day 1:10
   • Development impaired: Stunted growth (25%) and brain development, leading to learning difficulties and destroyed futures.
3. Cyclic Hunger: (even more invisible)
   Hungry some of the time, usually seasonally or monthly (US hunger).
   Facts: US 37m poor -1:8 poor, 1:5 children. #1 in Child poverty rate among DCs
   Who: Groups: single adults, single parent, working poor (40% of food bank are working poor)
   Effects:
   • Disrupts family life: adults skip meals and spend time scrounging for food, stress, hopelessness
   • Education: Unable to concentrate in school, they fall behind - Cripples their future.
   • Hunger combines with other factors, like high housing costs and limited health care access, to trap people in poverty.
4. Hunger is a lost opportunity.
   • More than a personal loss, it is a loss to society as well.
   • It steals the future from children and rob society of their potential.
   • It is a thieft: a basic denial of the opportunity, and right, of people to develop to their potentials.
   • A life spent chronically or cyclically malnurished is a life of limit opportunity, sickness, and premature death.
   • It is a fundamental injustice. Even in a free country, a person who is hungry is one who is not free.

Causes of Hunger (=poverty)

• Political
• Civil Wars, oppression, discrimination (political famines). Much bigger factor than natural disasters
• Corruption
• Lack of political power (poor = minority, low participation)
• Economic
• Insufficient Capital (means to earn income): Landless, education lack 
• Insufficient Public Investments: education, health care, infrastructure (roads,elec,water,sanitation)
• Insufficient opportunities: job shortage, low pay (min wage Natl >$5/hr ~$10k/yr, PovLine:Family4~20k/yr)
• High cost of basic needs: housing, health care. Housing=1/2-2/3 of income (>1/3=Unaffordable)
• Poor have no $, No economic vote, needs are invisible
• Social
• Family stresses: economic, abusive
• Bad choices: drugs/crime, Teen pregnancy
• Disease: HIV, malaria etc
• Discrimination, Inequality for women in LDCs - education
• Not lazy : walks 3 miles for water, 2 jobs (working poor)
• False debate : Personal vs Social Responsibility
• Both are causes, Cannot begin to more forward without this recognition.

Solutions to Hunger 

• Historic
• LDC: Progress has been made 1970s Pov=1:3, today 1:6. Life expectancy rise
• Green Revolution, Trade helped some. Asian growth: tigers, China, India. 
• Africa declines: colonialism, cold war, coruption/war, disease, Infrastructure neglect to service debt
• Demographic transition (population growth slows as incomes rise)
• US: Progress: 60's 1:4, now 1:7.    (now stalled).  
• Food stamps (wic). Participation barriers high FS=50%, underfunded
• Private Food banks (=1/10 of FS)

• Economic
• LDCs: Big 4 : Debt, Aid, Trade, Disease
• Debt - kills (cuts health,education) - Jubilee - MCA - Exchange Debt Forgiveness for infrastructure investment,  $10Bpromised, $1Bdelivered
• Aid - Basic investments = Support health, education, infrastructure: roads/power/water, AG lead. One campaign. UN Goals 0.7GNP, US=0.14 GNP, most stingy (Marshal plan 2% GNP - huge success, prevented mistakes of post ww1 instability). Declined in 90s
• Trade - Fair trade : Reduce barriers in exchange for basic labor (unions) /environmental stds. Promote private investments. 
• Disease - HIV/TB global fund, immunization (20-80% saves millions), oral rehydration
• Millenium Development Goals : Measurable goals : 2015 - 1/2 Pov, 100% Basic education, 0% Educ Gender !=, 1/3 child mortality, 1/4 maternal mortality, 1/2 unsafe water, Disease,Trade,Aid.
• US
• Work supports: Min Wage (living wage), EITC (living wage), Child care, job training
• Fund existing programs, increase participation: Food stamps
• Education emphasis in welfare reform
• Growth:  Public preconditions (educ/health/roads/power) must be in place for private markets to work. (Feeds growth and allows benefits to be broadly Dist)
  Focus on AG first, Technology, specialization, urbanization, trade
  Risks: inequality->instability inequality->power->exploitation
• Social
• Strengthen Families: Lower economic stresses. Education savings programs, Affordable housing
• Political
• Intern'l Cooperation/Negotiations - Poverty = instability
• Promotion of democracy, transparency, free press, NGOs
• Poor lack of power - Help from advocates for the poor
• False debate : Private vs Public Action
• Both needed. Each has strengths: Deep pockets vs flexibility
• We have the means whats missing in the moral and political will

Story of Bread for the World (BFW)

• BFW is an interdenominational Christian Group which lobbys our nation's decision makers
  • Founded in 1974 by Arthur Simon
  • His vision: Solving Hunger requires both private actions and public policies and programs.
  • Each as its strengths: Private efforts are more flexible at meeting individual needs, public efforts are more uniform and have greater reach (Food stamp program = 10x Private Foodbank Networks).
  • Christian's have worked effectively with private relief but not so well at shaping public policy.
  • BFW was founded to help fill the void in public policy advocacy.
  • We Focus on hunger here and abroad, Federal level focus, ...
  • Non partisan approach - Progress will only be made when hunger becomes a bipartisan comittment and a nonpartisan cause.
• Past Accomplishments
  • Child Survival Fund (global immunization effort - saves 2m/yr)
  • Debt relief (redirect money to human development)
  • Hunger status tracking in US
  • Increased funding for WIC, food stamps
  • Greater foreign aid focus on reducing poverty, not export promotion or arms sales

How we work:

The goal is to make the poor a priority
Our strength comes solely from the letters/calls that our members and supporters send to their representatives.

We work on 3 levels:

1. Offering of letters: Build a broad level of support
   • One main issue: Each year BFW selects one issue to be its primary focus.
   • Blanket coverage: People from all over the country write on this one issue, every member of congress gets letters from their constituents (~250k/yr).
   • This helps build broad support and momentum for an issue that othwerwise might get little attention (the most important thing we do)
   • Non-partisan focus - the only way to get things done.
   • This year's issue: ...
   • Invite.....
   • BFW offers an OL kit with video and support from their website, Regional Organizers and Local Chapters
   • Local Chapter: OL Workshops (when?) and speakers available.
   • Much of these letters are generated through Offering of Letters events at local churches
   • Please hold an OL event\ Thanks ....
2. Action Alerts: responding at the right time
   • Moving an issue through Congress has many steps and often quick contacts need to be made to specific members before committee or floor votes.
   • Action Alerts fill this role: Web alerts, email alerts, ...
   • Sign up.... (www.bread.org)
3. Membership: On going support of our efforts (50k members)
   • Monthly newsletter offers an easy way to track status of important hunger issues (take action on a monthly basis)
   • BFW Institute offers educational resources for further study and action
   • Local Chapter participation offers expanded ways of taking action: media work, church outreach, Rep visits, .... (My email: breador@verizon.net), Local Enewsletter signup sheet ....
   • Covenant Church Program offers resources on making hunger education and action a steady part of a church's outreach: Yearly contribution ($500-ave) <-> OL kit, monthly newsletter, church newsletter- hunger sunday, banquet of praise hymnal, 5 free bfw memberships.
   • Please join (Brochures) ....

Why is this work important to me spiritually...

• The Basics: God is the creator, the owner of all, we are all his children.
  • We are stewards of Gods creation, we rent what belongs to God 
  • God created each of us with certain talents and potentials
  • Hunger is a fundamental injustice, it is a theft of God given potential
  • A theft of opportunity, a waisting of Gods gifts
  • Hunger is an insult to the creator (Pv 14:31)
• God hears the suffering of his people - we are called to respond.
  • In the old testiment, he delivered his people from bondage
  • The prophets were sent to demand repentence, to restore justice and return to God.
  • God identifies with the poor and calls on us to help (Pv 31 - Speak up for the poor..., Ps72 - The king rescues the poor...)
  • In Mathew 25, he warns that when we neglect the poor we turn our back on him. Told to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the sick
• How are we to respond: Combined direct response with advocacy
  • One obvious way is through direct private help, something Christians have always done
  • Private response is insufficient by itself - food stamp program 10:1
  • To be effective we must also work for effective public policies, to make the poor a priority.
  • We cannot compartmentalize God out of the public realm, God must pervade our whole life, including what we advocate for in government
• 2 Great Commandments
  • 1. Love God foremost. We do this individually and through our churches, not government because we need government to accept all religions (Freedom of religion is one of our founding principles).
  • 2. Love our neighbor as ourselves. This we do everywhere: individually, within our churches\groups and through our government advocacy.
• We must do this carefully
  • Bible provides the vision, not the specific details: no wic, food stamps, foreign aid
  • We must remember our own fallability, but know that inaction is turning our backs on God. Parable of the Talents...
  • The key is to keep our focus on serving God, not the idolatry of serving an ideology or a party (nonpartisan focus).
  • The focus is on results, gaining opportunity for all Gods children, caring for his creation
• When we take action we are taking a leap of faith
  • When we write a letter, we don't see the direct results, but we know we are not alone.
  • People from all over the country are writing on the same issue,
  • We offer the letters to God and we have faith that they are in Gods hands
  • God takes are actions and can perform miracles with them
  • We may not see the results, but we have faith in what God can do, and we act on that faith

God has given each of us abilities and special gifts.

• What we do with our talents is our gift back to God and how we will be judged
• Inaction in the face of suffering is squandering our gifts before God, burying our talent in the sand. It is turning our backs on Gods call.
• God acts through us in this world, when we do this we are his instruments, we are the hands of God.

BFW allows us to combine our 2 greatest gifts: Christian faith and action with citizenship in a free land. One more way to answer Gods call