133 posts categorized "2012 Offering of Letters"

United Church of Jesus Christ (Apostolic) pastors bless more than 500 letters urging Congress to protect programs that are vital to hungry and poor people. The letters were collected as part of Bread for the World’s annual Offering of Letters campaign. From L to R: Lewis Payne, Bishop, Shrewsbury, PA; Robert Williams, Bishop, Richmond Heights, OH; Izett Scott, Bishop, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Cleven Jones, Bishop, Detroit, MI; Monroe Saunders, Presiding Bishop, Baltimore, MD; Colie L. Lorick, Bishop, Columbia, SC; Don Williams, Bishop, Martinsville, VA; Louis Stokes, Bishop; Hampton, VA; John M. Lewis, Bishop, Waldorf, MD; Robert Johnson, Bishop, Baltimore, MD.

Bread for the World participated in the 46th Annual International Holy Convocation held June 20 to 23, 2012.  Nearly 70 United Church of Jesus Christ (Apostolic) pastors -- including Bishop Don Williams, racial/ethnic outreach associate at Bread -- gathered from around the country in Baltimore, MD, for the annual event. Pastors delivered 509 hand-written and typed letters from churches all across the country for Bread’s Offering of Letters campaign.

During the closing worship service on June 23, the letters were blessed by Monroe Saunders, Presiding Bishop for the United Church of Jesus Christ (Apostolic.) Churches came together and over 2500 people attended the conference on the last day. The event demonstrated an important show of support for poor people by the bishop and churches.

Courtney Ryan is media relations intern at Bread for the World and a student at Eastern Mennonite University.

Sister Simone Campbell (waving) and other sisters from the "Nuns on the Bus" tour wave to a crowd of about 120 people waiting for them on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Monday, July 2, 2012. Photo by Laura Elizabeth Pohl/Bread for the World.

Crowds of reporters and enthusiastic supporters gathered in front of the United Methodist Building to welcome the "Nuns on the Bus" back to Washington, DC. The song "Eye of the Tiger" played as the nuns got off the bus, much as if they were rock stars entering a sold-out concert.

Dozens of hand-made signs with messages such as, “You speak truth and power,” colored the rally.

The sisters hope to influence Congress to create “reasonable revenue for responsible programs,” the five-word mantra for their alternative budget . Driving for “faith, family and fairness,” their journey, says the sisters was “spirit-driven.” 

Bread staffers (from left to right) Carter Echols, Nancy Neal, LaMarco Cable, Jen Fraser, and Michael Smith at the Bread for the World tent at the Wild Goose Festival in Shakori Hill, NC, from June 21 to 24, 2012.

"Are you trying to bake us in these black T-shirts in this 97 degree summer sun?" 

That was the first thing a festival goer said to me at the outdoor Wild Goose Festival in Shakori Hills, NC,  this past weekend. I immediately doubted our decision to give away black Bread for the World T-shirts to people who stopped by Bread’s exhibit tent.

Five Bread staffers and I drove to Shakori Hills, NC, on June 21 to join 2,200 artists, faith leaders, and activists to camp at the four-day Wild Goose Festival. Inspired by the United Kingdom’s Greenbelt, the Wild Goose Festival serves as an intersection of justice, spirituality, music, and art. Over the course of the festival, hundreds of attendees stopped by Bread’s 10 by 10 tent to meet Bread staff; play educational games about hunger; contact their members of Congress through social media; eat fresh baked bread; make anti-hunger art; and, yes, receive a free black Bread T-shirt.

Photo by Flickr user  TMAB2003

Next week, we again celebrate our nation’s independence. We have a lot to be proud of in our country’s long struggle for freedom and liberty. But nowadays too many people in our country have taken this admirable national quality and transformed it into a personal privilege to turn our collective backs on those who are different from us; those who annoy or frustrate us; those who aren’t quite making it;  those who are vulnerable and need help in these troubled times. When our personal  “independence” alone takes center stage, what’s lost is the countervailing reality of “interdependence” — how our modern world makes us radically connected to others, whether we actually like it or not.

Interdependence means something like this:

When Congress slashes funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) or school meals programs, it means that kids don’t get enough to eat, don’t learn well, and won’t thrive economically in the future. This will, in turn, make our country’s fabric weaker in the long run.

Cutting international food aid or development assistance means families abroad don’t prosper, developing nations lag socially and economically, trading partners become weaker, and our own nation’s economic and national security bases erode. These are the ties that bind all of us closer each day.

Sure, we can try to hide our heads in the sand and say that independence matters most, enabling us to ignore our brothers and sisters, and their children and grandparents, who need some help to make ends meet. Sure, we can try to simply go our own way, paring back programs in the name of deficit reduction no matter what the consequences. But if we really love what our country has stood for through 236 long, thrilling, and arduous years, I say we celebrate this July 4 in a different way.  

This year let’s call it National Interdependence Day. Let’s carry that same generous spirit of justice and connectedness through the crucial weeks that follow when Congress considers and votes on key hunger legislation.

For that joyous July 4 Interdependence Day party, I’ll offer to  buy some really cool fireworks and cheer lustily, indeed. Join me!

ACT NOW:  Take a moment now and let your members of Congress know that you practice interdependence, and ask for a circle of protection around programs that help those who are poor and hungry both at home and abroad.  

  Larry Hollar is senior regional organizer at Bread for the World.

Photo by Flickr user  Berto Garcia

I am new to the Wild West, but I do have the cow-girl boots to prove I am not averse to a little rough-and-tumble cowboy culture.  Last fall, when I moved to my newest hometown of Casper, WY, I was transitioning out of seminary and into pastoral ministry.  I chose to work at our local Starbucks as a way to get to know my new community. People and coffee are two of my life’s great passions, so what better intersection to participate in God’s reconciliation mission than a coffee shop? 

I did not know until a few months into working at the shop that Sen. John Barrasso and his wife, Bobbi, were regular customers.  I came to know them by their preferred coffee drinks as every good barista identifies their customers. 

When I graduated from high school in Kenya and left our family home in Malawi to attend university in Idaho, my parents gifted me with a necklace from which hangs a pendant of the African continent.  It has been a great conversation starter, including with Sen. Barrasso, who inquired from the other side of the espresso machine about my connections to the vast continent.  I explained that South Africa was my birthplace, and we chatted about his visits to the country. 

Little did I know when I was chosen as a Hunger Justice Leader for 2012 that serving coffee to one of Wyoming’s senators would become a powerful point of connection when I found myself lobbying on Capitol Hill on behalf of hungry people across the globe, in America, and in my new home-state. 

Bread for the World activists from Texas listen to a staffer in Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's office talk during Bread's Lobby Day in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, June 12, 2012. Photo by Laura Elizabeth Pohl for Bread for the World.

As you’ve hopefully heard, the Senate finished their work on the Farm Bill yesterday afternoon. The bill passed by a vote of 64-35. While the final bill included $4.5 billion in cuts to SNAP over the next ten years, our work and voices did make a difference.

Harmful amendments to further cut, and even dismantle, SNAP were defeated on a strong bi-partisan basis. This will certainly help us in sending a strong message to the House of Representatives that deeper cuts to SNAP are unacceptable.

Additionally, the final bill included some common sense reforms to international food aid and to crop insurance. An amendment by Sens. Coburn and Durbin to limit crop insurance premium subsidies to wealthy farmers also passed on a strong bi-partisan basis.

The process now turns to the House where the Agriculture Committee will be marking up their own bill on July 11. Stay tuned for details and possible actions around the markup. We expect much deeper cuts to SNAP likely in the range of $14 billion over ten years.

We want to thank all of our activists for your work advocating for SNAP and international food aid as the bill made its way through the Senate. There is still much to be done, but we are glad to see the Farm Bill process moving forward.

Christine Meléndez Ashley is policy analyst at Bread for the World.

Screenshot from video by Moyers & Company

Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of Network Lobby, is travelling throughout the United States on a two-week tour called, "Nuns on the Bus." The group of nuns are travelling to highlight their opposition to the House budget put forth by Rep. Paul Ryan that cuts funding to programs that help poor and hungry people.

In this short video produced by Moyers & Company, Sister Simone Campbell outlines the importance of protecting funding for food stamps in particular, and mentions Bread for the World's $50,000 campaign. She says:

"Bread for the World tells it that just on the food stamps alone Congressman Ryan is wrong that the churches can take care of this issue, because the cuts that are proposed and have been passed by the House is going to require every church, every synagogue, every mosque, every house of worship in the United States each year for 10 years to each raise $50,000. It’s impossible!"

Watch the video below:

(Left to right): Kay DeBlance, Rebecca Walker, Aaron Marez and David Ramos of Texas walk through the Russell Senate Office Building on their way to a meeting in Sen. Kay Hutchison's office (R-TX). They visited the office as part of Bread for the World's Lobby Day in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 12, 2012. Photo by Laura Elizabeth Pohl/Bread for the World

Each year during Bread for the World’s Lobby Day, some participants experience the sheer joy of being heard by a decision maker and possibly changing someone's mind. Others find comfort in knowing that they did not remain silent, but spoke boldly for justice. And others need the comfort of faith as they are met with callousness while speaking to the need in God’s world. But one thing is for certain: All come away with stories.

Join us tomorrow, Thursday, June 21, for the grassroots webinar and conference call to hear an inspiring story from one of our Hunger Justice Leaders, who went from serving coffee to her Senator back in her home state, to visiting him on Capitol Hill to ask him to make policy changes that help hungry people.

Also, Bread for the World’s President David Beckmann will walk us through the legislative process and both the challenges and victories around the circle of protection so far this year, including the Farm Bill being debated in the Senate now.

The call starts promptly at 4 p.m. EST (1 p.m. PST) and lasts one hour. You will have the chance to ask questions to both our guest Hunger Justice Leader, as well as Rev. Beckmann.  Please register now.

Join the conversation on Twitter as well.  We’ll be using the hashtag #BreadWeb.  

Robin Stephenson is regional organizer at Bread for the World.