Bread For The World Inc

Programs: Public education: to oppose likely cuts in the fiscal year 2018 budget, bread for the world president david beckmann, and other religious leaders launched a three-day fast, for such a time as this: a call to prayer, fasting and advocacy, on may 21. Board members bishop lawrence reddick and bishop richard pates, and michael curry, presiding bishop of the episcopal church, and elizabeth eaton, presiding bishop of the evangelical lutheran church, also participated in the fast campaign. They and other religious leaders have pledged to fast through december 2018, the last month of the 115th congress. The 21st day of the month is the day that snap benefits typically run out for families in the united states. Religious leaders and others are also engaged in prayer and advocacy for 20 million people facing famine in africa and the middle east. Bread for the world released in times like these: a pan-african christian devotional for public policy engagement at a december event attended by 60 pan-african leaders at the new museum of the bible in washington, d. C. The devotional includes reflections from 46 writers and has been endorsed by 23 organizations. The resource celebrates the resiliency and faithful witness of pan-african christians while encouraging engagement in advocacy to end hunger and poverty, which disproportionately impact people of african descent.

outreach and advocacy: bread for the world's 2017 offering of letters, doing our part to end hunger, urged congress to make funding decisions that keep our country and our world on track to end hunger by 2030, a goal our country set in 2015. Letters and other forms of advocacy led to a big win for bread and our members with the passage of a short-term budget through early 2018. The budget included strong funding for both domestic and international programs, including $5. 4 billion for famine relief overseas-a 20 percent increase over 2016-and funding for domestic anti-hunger programs such as the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children (wic), increased funding for head start, and nutrition programs for senior citizens. In 2017, bread for the world members sent more than 176,000 letters and 164,000 emails. They also made 32,000 phone calls to congress. Another 767,000 people took action through our digital advocacy program. In june, 400 bread for the world members - the largest group ever - came to washington, d. C. , to participate in our annual lobby day. They urged congress to oppose budget cuts that would increase hunger and poverty in the united states and around the world. Bread for the world also hosted a pre-lobby day training for pan-african and latino leaders to deepen their understanding of the federal budget and the impacts on communities of color. Seventy african american leaders met together on capitol hill while 22 latino leaders gathered at bread's office. The pre-lobby day trainings helped prepare these leaders for face-to-face meetings with their members of congress. In july, bread for the world organized several faith leaders to fly-in to washington, d. C. , to support the international affairs budget. Thirty-three christian, muslim, and jewish leaders met with 50 members of congress from the most important committees. With the support of the eleanor crook foundation, bread worked with other christian groups on a fly-in for conservative christian leaders in october. The executive director of the world food program, david beasley, briefed these leaders and coordinated his meetings in washington that day with our event. During the august congressional recess, financial support and advocacy from bread for the world members enabled us to organize in-district meetings with 10 democratic and 25 republican members of congress. In addition, 23 letters to the editor and op-eds were published in local newspapers in target states and districts.

public policy: bread for the world's work in recent years has been focused on the goal of helping to make hunger and poverty a higher u. S. Priority - toward the long-term goal of ending hunger by 2030. Fy 2017 appropriations bill bread for the world played a leadership role in protecting hungry people through the passage of the fiscal year 2017 federal budget. On may 3, in a bipartisan vote, congress passed a $1. 1 trillion bipartisan omnibus spending bill that would fund the government through september 30, the end of the government's 2017 fiscal year. Thanks in part to the advocacy of bread members, the bill provides more than $1 billion for famine relief in africa and the middle east. The health care debatefor the first eight months of 2017, congress focused on replacing the affordable care act (aca). All proposed bills included roughly $800 billion in cuts to medicaid for people in or near poverty. Bread for the world entered the debate because people who lack affordable health coverage must often choose between putting food on the table for their families and paying for the health care they need. Bread for world staff attended dozens of capitol hill meetings. Nearly 100,000 petitions opposing medicaid cuts were generated by our digital advocacy network. Bread for the world members made 6,000 medicaid-related calls to their members of congress. This outpouring of advocacy helped defeat all efforts in to dismantle the affordable care act and to cut medicaid. Tax cuts and jobs act of 2017following the october passage of the budget blueprint by the house, the senate began work on the tax cuts and jobs act of 2017. Bread for the world urged the inclusion of provisions to strengthen tax credits for low-income workers and for tax credits that encourage businesses to invest in low-income communities or hire hard-to-employ workers. We released a paper, tax policy is a hunger issue, outlining four tax policy priorities that can help families struggling with hunger and poverty. The final tax bill, passed at the end of 2017, retained some poverty-related tax credits, including improvements in the child tax credit for working families. But the bill will ultimately do more harm than good, especially among low-income americans. Deferred action for childhood arrivals (daca) and the dreamersthe administration's june decision to revoke daca protection for the dreamers-the 800,000 undocumented migrants who arrived in the united states as children-made immigration a prominent political issue in 2017. Bread for the world and other church partners organized call-in days in support of the dream act, which provides a path to citizenship for the dreamers. Action alerts went to bread for the world members in target districts and to our latino advisory committee and faith voices for immigration reform, an association of catholic, protestant, and evangelical latino church leaders. As of the end of the year, the trump administration and congress had not finalized plans on how to deal with the dreamers. Bread for the world continues to support bipartisan solutions, like the dream act or the usa act, that provide dreamers with a pathway to citizenship and protects immigrant families.

bread for the world's work in recent years has been focused on the goal of helping to make hunger and poverty a higher u. S. Priority by 2017 - toward the long-term goal of ending hunger by 2030. In 2016 bread for the world helped win passage of two major pieces of legislation for which bread member had long advocated: the global food security act (gfsa) passed congress with broad bipartisan support in july. Bread for the world was one of five organizations that led a much larger coalition to help pass this bill. Bread for the world's members had more than 130 meetings with congressional offices about the gfsa and secured 62 of the bill's 112 co-sponsors. The bill authorizes $7. 6 billion for agriculture, nutrition, and cash for food assistance over two years. It mandates policies long advanced by bread for the world, including strong emphasis on nutrition in the first 1,000 days of life. Congress instructed the obama administration to develop a forward-looking u. S. Food security strategy. The gfsa also mandates that relevant congressional committees review the trump administration's progress against this strategy in each of the next two years. The foreign aid transparency and accountability act also became law in 2016. Since 2009, bread for the world members have worked to make u. S. Foreign assistance more effective. The bill mandates the continuation of www. Foreignassistance. Gov, which makes detailed information about all civilian assistance programs public. Our work for foreign aid reform has helped us build bipartisan support for foreign assistance. These two bills will help the united states fulfill its responsibility to support the 2030 agenda on sustainable development, which includes ending hunger by 2030. The nations of the world - including the united states - adopted these goals following the visit in the fall of 2015 to the united nations by pope francis.