Bread Blog

What's art got to do with poverty?

Thursday, October 16 is World Food Day and this weekend many groups around the world are putting together events as part of the international campaign Stand Up Against Poverty (October 17-19). 

Stand Up is a global mobilization to end poverty and inequality and to raise awareness for the Millennium Development Goals.  The ongoing hunger crisis and economic downturn brings new challenges to progress on achieving these goals.  Every day, 50,000 people die as a result of extreme poverty and the gap between rich and poor people is increasing.  Nearly half the world’s population live in poverty, 70% are women.  We have the power to change this.

Here in Portland, Oregon we are using art as a form of advocacy to mobilize and educate our community about the realities of hunger in the developing world.  Portland State University students have been rallied together by one passionate student, Carrie Stiles, who believes people can and must make a difference.  The event she is directing has pulled together politicians, anti-hunger advocates, global poverty experts and artists.  Artists are not usually the main attraction at a hunger awareness event, but Carrie is one of those people who can think outside the box.

Who better can tell a visual or auditory story through pictures, dance or music that connects us to our compassion but artists?  Artists live in the heart often more than the mind.  Art is a compelling form of advocacy that has been used throughout the ages.  Think of the wood engravings of Fritz Eichenberg during the depression that portrayed the long soup lines (see above image).  Eichenberg used his gift to call for peace and justice in this world throughout his life.

Last Friday, the PSU Stand Up artists gathered together in a local studio and created a web of advocacy by passing around a ball of yarn.  We looked at how advocating for one issue is connected to another.  For example advocating for orphans was connected to nearly every MDG.  Without help to care for themselves, orphans are connected to extreme poverty and often malnourished.  Further, lack of a proper education for an orphan in the developing world (where few get an education with meager government funds to invest in schools) limits their resources later in life.  Many orphans also find themselves in their precarious situation in areas like Sub-Sahara Africa because they lost their parents to HIV/AIDS.  The list can go on and on.

As we have lately seen, our world economies are interconnected.  Our world food system is also interconnected.   Our simple exercise in passing a ball of yarn showed us the connections between each of the Millennium Development Goals.  The root causes of global poverty are complex, but the MDGs are a comprehensive road map to at least cut extreme hunger in half by the year 2015. We just need the political will to follow the path.   I’m excited to see what our artists will come up with outside the usual box of advocacy on Friday.

Recipe for Hope: Respond to the Hunger Crisis

You can make a difference in the global hunger crisis.

It's in the news nearly every day: Food prices are soaring worldwide. More low-income people in the United States are making trips to food banks, whose stocks are quickly depleting. In developing countries, for the world's poorest people—who spend up to 80 percent of their income to buy food—the situation is even more devastating. 

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But you have the power to be part of the solution.  JOIN THE CAMPAIGN

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For six weeks, from Mother's Day through Father's Day, Bread for the World will conduct an online campaign to help hunger activists raise awareness and take action. Each week, an email from Bread will offer the ingredients for:

• Recipe for Despair
  More information on the causes of this crisis; and a


• Recipe for Hope
  Specific actions you can take to help end it. You can also invite your friends to join the campaign.

It's easy to feel helpless when you watch people around the world suffering for lack of food. Be part of the Recipe for Hope, and be part of the solution.

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JOIN THE CAMPAIGN 

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Learn more about rising food prices and the hunger crisis.

Read Bread's press release on the Recipe for Hope and invite your friends to join on Facebook.

We'll also be updating the blog during the six-week campaign with the actions we'll be urging folks to take - thank you in advance for joining!  It's quick and free to sign up, and it matters - right now.

The Drama of Hunger

I am convinced
That if all mankind
Could only gather together
In one circle
Arms around each other's shoulders
And dance, laugh and cry
            Together
      Then much
           of the tension and burden
                      of life
           Would fall away

                 -Leonard Nimoy

How many times have we thought to ourselves that ending hunger and poverty is an insurmountable problem?  And how many times have we countered that thought by considering the possibilities if we all put our hearts and minds together to address this problem.

And then you're faced with considering a wide range of emotions.

Do you cry because the suffering is so real? Consider the example of a mother (anywhere in the world) having to choose between feeding her children and getting enough to eat. 

Do you laugh because we want to make fun of some of the situations that cause the suffering?  For example, any clown can tell you that that the amount of money we spend on some goods and services (ice cream, perfume, ocean cruises, pet services) every year far exceeds what it would cost hunger and malnutrition at the global level.

Laugh? or Cry? or Both? 

That's what the students enrolled in the class Hunger: A Theatrical Expression considered as part of a class project.  This was one of more than a dozen classes offered through the Research Service Learning Program at the University of New Mexico during the spring semester 2008.

The class involved many aspects of theater, from writing the script to designing the set and costumes to acting out the various roles that they created in a play entitled Hungry Machine.  Before the students wrote the script, they had to do extensive research to ensure that their play was not a superficial look at hunger. The looked at a wide range of resources (including several copies of the Bread for the World Institute's annual hunger reports) and held dialogues with a couple of guest speakers.  "They spent the entire first month of the semester doing research," said Anna Saggese, one of two instructors  Anna and fellow instructor Riti Sachdeva also directed the play.

Here's an excerpt from the program:

"One in three New Mexicans face food insecurities"

With this sentence, the class began a journey of discovery.  We wanted to know what food insecurity is, who feels it, what it looks like, tastes like, where it begins and how to combat it.  Through the research process, we started to unearth our personal relationships with food.  We saw how food is an integral part of family, culture, survival and saiety. We looked at a lack of food and its impact on the individual and our larger communities.

The students then proceeded to put together the play, which consisted of about 10 vignettes involving many topics related to hunger, poverty and food. Some were monologues, others involved mimes and clowns.  There was even a humorous sketch where a schoolteacher-type nun (with a German accent!) spoke about the impact of genetic engineering on the food supply.  Underlying the various topics were what the students determined were six causes or effects of hunger: gender discrimination, vulnerability of children and the elderly, population growth and consumption, poverty and powerlessness, violence and militarism, and racism and ethnocentricity. 

Here's what they said:

As we shared our writing we noticed interesting connections.  Most of our main characters are women.  A few are pregnant women.  We realize a definite connection between food and mothers.  Most of the monologues address topics that evoke a multitude of responses: anger, grief, fear, and even laughter.  This performance is testimony to our process of uncovering the very complex truths about hunger in our state and in our world.

The resulting product was a very powerful play that spoke to the audience at many levels,  with the message that hunger, while complex, is a problem that can be solved if we take time to learn about its underlying causes.  Click here for program and cast information 

To express their commitment to addressing the problem, the students in the class decided to include the opportunity for the audience to write letters as part of Bread for the World's 2008 Offering of Letters campaign, which asks Congress to increase funding for poverty-focused development assistance by at least $5 billion.

How to Lose a Trip to D.C. in 10 Days

Quick answer: By not applying to be a Hunger Justice Leader!

 

Longer-ish answer: Good morning, gentle readers.  This is your friendly reminder that coming up in a week and a half (***MARCH 15***), the deadline - for applying to come to Washington, DC this summer for an exciting, expenses paid gathering and training - will come and go.  And we don't want you to miss it! 

If you're between the ages of 18 and 35, this will be a great opportunity, if selected, to deepen and enhance your commitment to activism and hunger issues, all while connecting, engaging and worshiping with your peers and premier experts on said issues and policies and such.

And while 10 days is a good amount of time, the application does need a personal statement and a recommendation, so start to... APPLY TODAY!

(P.S. Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey not included.)

"I want to be part of the problem"

Good morning!

We first posted about applying to be a Hunger Justice Leader a month ago or so, but today we have a special added bonus in case you were on the fence about whether to apply or just hadn't gotten around to it yet -

Check out this link or watch the embedded goodness below today and then make sure you post it to your Facebook profile, share the link with all of your friends, etc!  They're bound to at least be intrigued - and maybe they'll "wanna be part of the solution"...

All-expenses paid Hunger Justice Leaders Training in Washington, DC - June 14-17!

Calling all motivated 18-35 year olds!  We're really excited about this opportunity and want to make sure that you have everything you need in terms of information and resources if you're energized and intrigued by the possibility of coming to Washington, DC for a long weekend this summer.

As you'll see from following the link, the training will be a great time to substantively take your activism and passion for hunger and justice issues to the next level.  Please don't hesitate to contact us to discuss and ask any questions you want or need answered. Also, feel free to pass this information (and flyer at the link below) on to your friends and campus and young professionals groups and ministries.

We look forward to seeing you in June hopefully! 

Applications are due by MARCH 15.

Read more and apply HERE for Hunger Justice Leaders Training 2008!

(and did we mention it's all-expenses paid for those selected?!?)

UNM Hunger Awareness Event a Success!

By Kitty Hurst
University of New Mexico student

After months of research, planning, and organizing, my Research Service Learning class Communication for Peace finally received its reward. Our hunger awareness event at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque was a success, with 200 surveys collected and twice as many people stopping by to pick up information, share ideas, and grab a snack.

Our project was a joint effort with the Popular Culture, Media, and Community Action class, which is one of the courses offered this semester by the American Studies Department.

Most of our class was surprised at how many people came by the tables, but I wasn’t. I knew how hard we worked to make the day a success. I knew I wasn’t the only one who spent long hours doing research, making posters and baking goodies. We had a whole team of committed people who contributed to the success of the event. It always amazes me to see what ordinary people can achieve when they work together.  See the Website we created for the class.

It was remarkable to see common myths about hunger unfold at our event. I heard many times that we shouldn’t be feeding the campus community, that students are a privileged class and don’t go hungry. People said we should go to the ghettos to find hunger and poverty.

I was happy to tell these disbelievers that hunger is pervasive in New Mexico, and that, contrary to popular opinion, there aren’t just pockets of poverty. People from all parts of town are hungry, not just those in poor neighborhoods. With the data from our surveys, we will soon have the numbers to map out hunger on campus.
 
One young woman told me the story of her problems with the Food Stamp Program. She is a working mother whose husband is a student at UNM. She explained how frustrating it was to stand in line six hours, waiting to turn in her food stamp application. Without any of her paperwork being filed, she was told there were too many other people in need, and that she should come back in two months. She still hasn’t received any aid.

Hers was a story I heard repeated again and again. It’s obvious there is a hunger issue in this city if so many people are willing to wait so long to apply for food stamps.

Instead of stories of frustration, others pressed us with tough questions, mostly about the gaps in hunger relief programs and our plans for a UNM community garden.

The community garden created a lot of excitement. I heard all sorts of ideas from installing compost centers on campus, to building greenhouses, to using the food grown on campus to make the Student Union Building more sustainable. Now we know the support and ideas are available to make this ambition a reality.

Networking with people from other campus and community organizations was a bonus I didn’t expect. Other activists were drawn to the event, talking eagerly of how we can work together to achieve amazing things. It was exciting to see so many people passionate about hunger issues. Many people signed our list serve, and the class is looking forward to collaborating with other groups on future projects. Students were especially enthusiastic when they heard that so many Service Learning Classes about hunger are being offered next semester.

Now when people say no one is hungry on campus, or that hunger isn’t an issue at UNM, I can reply with stories I heard first hand about six-hour food stamp lines, community members who can’t afford healthy meals, and impassioned students coming together to fight hunger.

(The author is also a staff writer for the campus newspaper The Daily Lobo)

Being ONE of Many

This post originally appeared on the Huffington Post on October 14.

Growing up, my view of what charity and humanitarian work looked like was a very vivid TV commercial in which there were shots of starving children in the slums with a large 1-800 number flashing at the bottom of the screen telling me I can save lives with either Visa or MasterCard. It wasn't until a U2 concert in high school that my eyes were pried back open to the crisis of extreme poverty and global AIDS by an Irish rock star named Bono.

Halfway through the show he made an extremely moving speech, had the Pepsi Center turn off the lights, and asked everyone to text to this thing called the ONE Campaign in order to add our voices to the anti-poverty movement. The true inspiration to get involved didn't kick in right there though, only weeks later, after receiving emails detailing some statistics of global poverty, did I decide to act. 1 billion people live off less than a dollar a day, 300 million of them are Africans. Every day in Africa, 6,600 people die from HIV/AIDS. Every minute, five children die of AIDS. the statistics went on but I was already appalled, how did I not know about this? Why when I turned on the news was this not the breaking story?

My volunteer work for the ONE Campaign began in January of 2006 in the form of getting local cities to pass proclamations declaring their support for ONE and its goals. Specifically, urging our government to keep the promises President Bush made at the G8 conference in 2005, at which he pledged an additional 1% of the U.S. budget to go toward humanitarian efforts. This promise was a response to the Millennium Development Goals set at the G8 in 2000. The cities of Louisville, Boulder, Broomfield, Ft. Collins, and Denver are all now officially Cities of ONE, allying themselves with the anti-poverty movement. The State of Colorado's senate also declared Colorado to be a State of ONE in the summer of 2006.

The hardest part out of all of that was getting Denver on board. With most city council meetings I just arrived for the citizen comment section of the meeting and asked them to consider the proclamation I was submitting to them at a future meeting, which usually worked out fine. The Denver City Council meetings only have certain dates for citizen input because they would never be able to get through the docket otherwise. To even be able to propose the idea it would require a council member's sponsorship. It took several months of emailing and calling to get one of the members to take it up, eventually I asked Councilman Rick Garcia and he was very excited to sponsor a ONE Proclamation.

His staff drafted the proclamation and the council soon passed it. It was an experience that taught me that persistence pays off, even if that persistence has to last through several months of bad luck. The hardest thing about doing humanitarian work at a government level is that it's hard to keep up your energy. You go through highs and lows, sometimes hearing a really good speech or sermon that drives you to get every single city in the world to pass a proclamation against poverty, and other times you'll work and work on an event and not as many people show as you were expecting, it's very hard to get back up and try again.

I'm recovering from such a low right now actually, over the past few months I've hardly done any volunteer work, a busy summer mixed with graduation from high school left my motivation level at an all time low since that U2 concert. Now with college starting, that energy level is coming back up as I see so many opportunities for my new campus to get involved and make a difference. But it is very hard to maintain a high energy level about issues that takes so long to make progress on. Don't get me wrong, we've come a long way since even 2005, but there is so much more that lies before us in the goal of halving extreme poverty (living off less than a dollar a day), and slowing the spread of AIDS by 2015.

This is where you come in. As a citizen of this country to have the obligation to tell the people representing you how to spend your money and what is important to you. The easiest way to do that right now is to get on a computer and go to ONE.ORG. You can take the first step by signing the ONE Declaration, get your friends to sign it, get your church involved and hold a service on how faith calls us to serve the poor. There are so many ways for you to spread the word and open peoples eyes to what's happening around the world. As Bono says, "This is not about charity, it's about justice." We're not asking for your money, this campaign is about using your voice to make a difference in the world around you and I urge you to use yours today.

Matthew McAllister
ONE Volunteer

Matthew McAllister is a freshman at CU – Boulder. He has been volunteering for the ONE Campaign for three years and hopes to make social justice part of his career after college. mcallister2011@gmail.com

How do I involve my campus in advocacy?

Welcome back to campus!  I had an excellent conversation today with Heather from Creighton University in Omaha Nebraska.  She has teamed up with an organization called The Campus Kitchen Project to raise awareness about nutrition and hunger in the surrounding community.  As part of Creighton's direct service efforts, they also want to discuss the importance of advocacy  Heather was asked to organize two workshops about the farm bill and advocacy. 

We came up with a few ideas for workshop activities:

• Facilitate a mock meeting with a member of Congress
• Direct Service and Advocacy Activity - Examines the root causes of hunger and what we are doing to solve the problems.
• Overview of the legislative process - PDF link - Discuss the timing of our advocacy efforts.
• Create a YouTube video of students making phone calls to their members of Congress about farm bill reform
• Link to other campus resources

Heather is reaching out to the service learning chairs of the Greek Organizations on campus with hopes that the message with expand among these groups.  Way to go, Heather!

Are you involved with any upcoming advocacy events on your campus?  Do you have any other ideas for Heather?

Extra! Extra! Student Lobby Day this Month in Washington, DC on the Farm Bill!

This just in from our friends at Oxfam America - if you want to go, the info is below!  Senators and representatives constantly say that they a.) want to hear more from young people and b.) that students are voices that they pay special attention to.  Your voice matters!

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National Student Lobby day: Students United for a fair Farm Bill

Who are we lobbying?
Our Senators on September 21, 2007! Call your senators using the Capitol Switchboard: 202 224 3121

Who is doing the lobbying?
You! Along with other students from Oxfam America , United Students for Fair Trade, and the Student Trade Justice Campaign. We have delegations coming from George Washington, Yale, Vassar, Georgetown , University of Louisville , Furman, Drew, UCLA and other schools. Housing provided.

Make your appointments today and email your interest to Amanda Formica at aformica@gwu.edu and Jimmy Kelly at jakelly@vassar.edu by September 10 if you live outside DC and September 12 if you live in DC.

Please contact us also if you are unable to attend but are interested in leading a day of action on your campus; we will also be coordinating a national call-in on the same day.

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Bread for the World members from New Mexico lobbying Congress in June 2007.