Bread Blog

Statement on the $700 Billion Bailout Package

All this talk about the $700 billion bailout package to solve the financial crisis overlooks the plight of low-income families in our country. They are constantly averting crises – with or without Wall Street’s help. 

Bread for the World has issued the following statement:

Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, issued the following statement on the Congressional agreement for a $700 billion bailout package to deal with the current financial crisis:

“Bread for the World supports all efforts to stabilize this widening financial crisis.  Although details still have to be worked out, we know firsthand the kinds of crises poor families suffer every day.  While we may be able to prevent the worst-case scenario, the economy is already tough for too many.  More people in the United States are being pushed into poverty; more people are being pushed into hunger.

“An economy is more than just a secure credit market. An economy is also people:  people who suffer foreclosures, people who wonder about losing their jobs and live paycheck to paycheck, people who go to bed hungry.  Being a low-income American means constantly averting crisis, wondering whether the latest one will render them unable to meet even their most basic human needs. 

“As people of faith, we know that the Lord’s Prayer petitions for daily bread and for the forgiveness of our debts and of debtors. In rescuing the U.S. economy, our leaders and Congress must ensure that both are done at the same time, too.” 

"Nutrition key in fighting AIDS" - Clinton

From Sunday's Washington Post:

Former President Clinton said Sunday that keeping HIV-infected children in the developing world well-fed amid the pressures of skyrocketing global food and fuel prices will be crucial to fending off the deadly virus.

Bread's Senior Policy Analyst, Erin Kolodjeski, recently had a letter to the editor published in the Washington Times.  Read the full letter here.

Almost five out of every six people on our planet live in developing countries. Increasingly, leaders such as President Bush and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates are acknowledging that U.S. national interests - economic, security and moral - are entwined with the stability and opportunity that exists in some of these desperate places. The U.S. public knows this, too. In a recent poll, more than two-thirds of likely voters said the U.S. should be doing more to respond to the recent spike in global food prices.

We Are Bread for the World

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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.

Painting the Picture

Thought it might be helpful to provide some articles appearing this week that relate directly to the content of the calls we're urging you to make by noon tomorrow (Friday, April 25th, see post below this).

All of these articles really bring home the broad scope (and gravity) of the issues that are directly (negatively) affecting small farmers and poor and hungry people here and abroad right now.  So if you were looking for more context, understanding or empathy on all this craziness, these are a few from the many helpful articles that are featuring prominently these past few weeks.  And then make sure you call - Your representatives and senators can do something dramatic and meaningful about it!
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Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger

"His eyes downcast, his own stomach empty, the unemployed father said forlornly, “They look at me and say, ‘Papa, I’m hungry,’ and I have to look away. It’s humiliating and it makes you angry.”

That anger is palpable across the globe. The food crisis is not only being felt among the poor but is also eroding the gains of the working and middle classes, sowing volatile levels of discontent and putting new pressures on fragile governments."

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Food Crisis is Depicted as 'Silent Tsunami'

""Hunger is a moral challenge to each one of us as global citizens, but it is also a threat to the political and economic stability of poor nations around the world," Brown said, adding that 25,000 people a day are dying of conditions linked to hunger.

"With one child dying every five seconds from hunger-related causes, the time to act is now," Brown said, pledging $60 million in emergency aid to help the WFP feed the poor in Africa and Asia, where in some nations the prices of many food staples have doubled in the past six months.

Brown said the "vast" food crisis was threatening to reverse years of progress to create stronger middle classes around the world and lift millions of people out of poverty."

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Farm Income Up, but Subsidies Stay

"In other words, Congress seems oblivious. And longstanding critics of American policy are piling on.

“It really is astounding,” said Representative Ron Kind, Democrat of Wisconsin, who has pushed for broad changes in farm subsidy programs. “It’s as if this farm bill is being negotiated in a vacuum.”"

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NOW - MAKE THOSE CALLS!  And let us know how it went in the comment section - thank you!

 

Does Microcredit work? Under what Circumstances?

Clap Your Hands Say YEAH!

Last week, many of you probably received action alerts from us and/or the ONE Campaign asking you to call your senators (If you don't get the alerts, sign up here!).  The ask was to urge them to save vital foreign assistance funding that was in danger of being dramatically cut and in case you didn't hear already, the results of your calls and the Senate vote are in and I'm here to report:

Very, Very Good News!

Early Friday morning of last week, the Senate decided overwhelmingly to restore the $4.1 Billion shortfall in the International Affairs Budget - which recommends funding levels for federal programs including effective anti-poverty efforts. The "Biden-Lugar Amendment" (S. Amdt 4245) passed 73-23 with overwhelming bipartisan support! (See how your senators voted here)

So here's what happened... Earlier last week, we asked you to called to support the Feinstein (D-CA) - Smith (R-OR) amendment to restore $2.6 billion to the International Affairs function of the FY09 budget resolution. Shortly after calls started to flood in (there were nearly a thousand calls from Bread supporters alone), we learned that Senators Biden (D-DE) and Lugar (R-IN) had decided to do even better and sponsor an amendment that brought the International Affairs back to the level of the president's request of $39.8 billion - a $4.1 Billion increase. So we turned our attention to the Biden-Lugar amendment which contained this bigger increase--and that amendment passed.

Bottom line: we couldn't have done this without you. This victory signals the power of grassroots demands for building a more just world. Moreover, this is an important first step in Bread for the World's campaign to increase poverty-focused development assistance by $5 billion next year.

Yet our work is not done. The budget resolution is just a spending blueprint and does not dictate the details of how this money should be spent. However the budget does send an important signal to appropriators who will be making these final decisions, and last Friday's vote shows the broad support these programs have.

Let's build on this momentum. Can you write a letter to the editor? Over the next few days, your local papers may run stories about the federal budget. We need to make sure the story focuses on what the budget resolution could mean for reducing poverty and giving hope to millions of our brothers and sisters around the world.

We also want to thank the senators that voted in favor of the amendment, and call those into account who did not. We have sample talking points if you need help getting started (see the 'comment' under this post), but your letter is always more likely to get published if it is original and comes from the heart. Please consider writing one, and if you have any questions, you can e-mail or call Shawnda Hines, Grassroots Media Associate at Bread, at shines@bread.org or at 888-752-7323 x2.

Thank you again for your passion for working to end hunger in our time.

"...and on that farm he read the newspaper..."

The farm bill and its related issues continue to make headlines, welcome news that awareness is still being generated about how much hunger, nutrition and real, everyday people are affected by this critically important piece of legislation.

The unwelcome news is that the farm bill and these issues are still in the news because in its current form the bill is directly (negatively) exacerbating the global food economy as well as American families' abilities to keep enough, nutritious food on the table in the coming years (not what we need while already headed for recession).

First up - the writers of this New York Times article forgot to check last week's Op-Eds, because they fail to fully explain what they mean when they say "farmers are flourishing."  In the context of this article, they mean that farmers who receive commodity payments (i.e. for only growing corn, wheat, soy, rice and/or cotton) are flourishing due to the spike in world prices/demand for these commodities and the fact that they still are paid hand over fist by the farm bill for growing just these things.  Millions of small and specialty farmers in this country are left out.

As the Washington Post rightly points out in a perfectly timed editorial today, there is no reason billions of dollars should continue to go to these large farmers in such a boon time when millions of poor and hungry families could use boosts in the nutrition programs to help them cope with the rising costs of basic food needs.  If you're a regular reader of this blog/Bread materials, you'll know that the Senate already DID approve caps on commodity payments, etc, but they were stopped short by the actions of Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, etc, as the editorial also points out.

Finally, none other than Bread for the World President David Beckmann also had an Op-Ed published in the Washington Times on Thursday.  He highlights in powerful language all that could be done to improve the farm bill still and that Congress has it within its power to see some of these economically pragmatic (and stimulating) and morally just decisions done the right way.

Fired up about the injustices and opportunities still before Congress on the farm bill after reading all of that?  Read what actions you can take HERE.
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P.S. On a more personal note, I'm struck by this quote from the New York Times article on grain shortages: 

“Everyone wants to eat like an American on this globe,” said Daniel W. Basse of the AgResource Company, a Chicago consultancy. “But if they do, we’re going to need another two or three globes to grow it all.”

Last time I checked, for those who can manage we have a bit of an over-eating problem in this country.  Our portions and the kinds of things we eat proportionally to what we should be eating are grotesque, by and large - either in the restaurant or in the home.  I'm not holding anything against Mr. Basse here.  In truth, he's actually pointing out that we (as Americans) in our bounty set a bar for the rest of the world that's impossible to emulate from a resource standpoint.  Even though we're a world of plenty, the 'American Dream' of a two-car garage and Golden Corrals at every intersection is entirely unsustainable for 6 billion people - and unnecessary for us all to live healthy, "normal" lives and still share the planet equitably.

Interested in an estimate of your "global footprint"?  Click here for a fascinating test of "how many Earths we would need" if we all lived like you.  Last time I checked, I think I was at about 4.5.  Ouch!

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"...