We'll soon be enjoying the fruits of the Economic Stimulus Act as bonus checks fly into our mailboxes. Extra cash will be a windfall for some taxpayers treating themselves to luxuries like flat screen TV's. Yet what could it mean for a food insecure senior, a teenager too hungry to concentrate on exams, or someone without a home?
This money could be used for a different kind of stimulus. We could increase its benefit by donating it to organizations that stimulate the economic growth of people in need. It would be a win for everyone because the economy would be stimulated as money is spent by the org, neighbors would be helped at a desperate economic time, and donors would receive write-offs for charitable contributions. Food banks, Bottomless Closet, and literacy programs are a few of many kinds of groups that help people in poverty improve their ability to support themselves.
Challenge yourself to consider whether you truly need the stimulus package check. If you do, use it in good health! But if you don't, please consider putting this money in part or whole where it can stimulate the part of the economy that needs it the most.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Farm Bill Update
From Bread for the World...a Farm Bill update as of April 25. Sorry I'm a bit late in posting it here!
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Bread for the World Celebrates Half a Victory as Farm Bill Deal Seems Imminent
The following is a statement from the Rev. David Beckmann, president, Bread for the World, regarding the tentative deal reached this afternoon by Congressional negotiators on the multibillion-dollar Farm Bill:
“Congress is very close to finishing its marathon negotiations on the Farm Bill. We do not yet have the details, and there will probably be some last-minute wrangling over the weekend and next week.
“But Bread for the World is celebrating because Congress has, by all accounts, substantially increased funding for food assistance to hungry people. This is the right thing to do, especially now that hunger and poverty are on the increase. Poor families in this country are facing higher food and fuel prices, higher unemployment, and more restricted access to credit. The increase in world hunger is even more dramatic.
“It would have been wrong to continue past policies at a time when the need for food assistance is acute.
“Reportedly, the new Farm Bill also increases farm subsidies, despite record commodity prices and farm income. Congress has added a whole new subsidy program, a permanent disaster fund, even while they are modestly trimming some ongoing subsidy programs. Bread for the World wanted money shifted from subsidies to affluent landowners into investments that would benefit farm and rural families who really need help. That same shift would reduce the extent to which U.S. farm policies interfere with agriculture in Africa and other poor parts of the world.
“So if Congress and the President finalize the deal that was negotiated today, it will be a half victory for Bread for the World and the other reform groups – more help for hungry people, but no significant reform yet in the subsidy programs.
“The organizations that lobby for big farm subsidies spent $80 million lobbying Congress last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. For the church, environmental, and taxpayer groups who are seeking reform, half a victory is indeed cause for celebration.”
----------------------------------------
Bread for the World Celebrates Half a Victory as Farm Bill Deal Seems Imminent
The following is a statement from the Rev. David Beckmann, president, Bread for the World, regarding the tentative deal reached this afternoon by Congressional negotiators on the multibillion-dollar Farm Bill:
“Congress is very close to finishing its marathon negotiations on the Farm Bill. We do not yet have the details, and there will probably be some last-minute wrangling over the weekend and next week.
“But Bread for the World is celebrating because Congress has, by all accounts, substantially increased funding for food assistance to hungry people. This is the right thing to do, especially now that hunger and poverty are on the increase. Poor families in this country are facing higher food and fuel prices, higher unemployment, and more restricted access to credit. The increase in world hunger is even more dramatic.
“It would have been wrong to continue past policies at a time when the need for food assistance is acute.
“Reportedly, the new Farm Bill also increases farm subsidies, despite record commodity prices and farm income. Congress has added a whole new subsidy program, a permanent disaster fund, even while they are modestly trimming some ongoing subsidy programs. Bread for the World wanted money shifted from subsidies to affluent landowners into investments that would benefit farm and rural families who really need help. That same shift would reduce the extent to which U.S. farm policies interfere with agriculture in Africa and other poor parts of the world.
“So if Congress and the President finalize the deal that was negotiated today, it will be a half victory for Bread for the World and the other reform groups – more help for hungry people, but no significant reform yet in the subsidy programs.
“The organizations that lobby for big farm subsidies spent $80 million lobbying Congress last year, according to the Wall Street Journal. For the church, environmental, and taxpayer groups who are seeking reform, half a victory is indeed cause for celebration.”
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
GCFD Farm Bill Call-in/Web message
From the Greater Chicago Food Depository:
We are happy to report that our Congressional leaders are making progress toward passing a Farm Bill, which is the legislation that provides critical resources for national nutrition programs including both the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and the Food Stamp Program. If passed, the Farm Bill will provide more food to food banks through TEFAP and will make important improvements to the Food Stamp Program. These improvements are needed more than ever due to skyrocketing fuel and food prices. Additionally, the nation’s economic slowdown makes it increasingly difficult for many struggling families and individuals to make ends meet.
As negotiations enter the homestretch a final push is needed to ensure that Members of Congress get the message that they need to adequately fund critical hunger programs that help the hungry secure the food they need.
Please take action today and urge your Members of Congress to pass a final Farm Bill that provides strong support for national nutrition programs that feed low-income Americans.
Call your rep and senators now or take action now at this page...
https://secure2.convio.net/gcfd/site/AdvocacyJServSessionIdr007=2ymmlcrgm6.app6b&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=119
We are happy to report that our Congressional leaders are making progress toward passing a Farm Bill, which is the legislation that provides critical resources for national nutrition programs including both the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) and the Food Stamp Program. If passed, the Farm Bill will provide more food to food banks through TEFAP and will make important improvements to the Food Stamp Program. These improvements are needed more than ever due to skyrocketing fuel and food prices. Additionally, the nation’s economic slowdown makes it increasingly difficult for many struggling families and individuals to make ends meet.
As negotiations enter the homestretch a final push is needed to ensure that Members of Congress get the message that they need to adequately fund critical hunger programs that help the hungry secure the food they need.
Please take action today and urge your Members of Congress to pass a final Farm Bill that provides strong support for national nutrition programs that feed low-income Americans.
Call your rep and senators now or take action now at this page...
https://secure2.convio.net/gcfd/site/AdvocacyJServSessionIdr007=2ymmlcrgm6.app6b&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=119
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Obama Food Drive goes nationwide!
The last post was about a virtual food drive to raise funds for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, but good news! This on-line drive has been set up so that you can select a food bank wherever you are in the country. Select your local org from the drop down list when you are checking out. Once again, here's the info about it:
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Obama Supporters Against Hunger and Poverty would like to invite you to join in the fight against hunger in our community by supporting food banks across the nation through the Obama Supporters Virtual Food Drive. All donations raised through the Virtual Food Drive will be earmarked to help the food banks purchase nutritious, high-quality food for hungry individuals and families. This drive was set up by the Greater Chicago Food Depository, but allows users to select the local food bank of their choice with a drop down menu.
Why a Virtual Food Drive? The answer is simple – to get more food to more people in need. Through the Virtual Food Drive, we can purchase food in bulk quantities, at prices well below the market rate. All the items on our food drive have been identified as ones that are in high demand. Won't you please join me in helping to provide food for people who rely on the food banks each week?
We believe Obama supporters can be actively involved in their community and the world around them. Please join us in supporting this effort from now until May 30 by visiting
http://vad.aidmatrix.org/vadxml.cfm?driveid=2682
The Greater Chicago Food Depository does not endorse any particular candidate or political party.
-------------------------------------------
Obama Supporters Against Hunger and Poverty would like to invite you to join in the fight against hunger in our community by supporting food banks across the nation through the Obama Supporters Virtual Food Drive. All donations raised through the Virtual Food Drive will be earmarked to help the food banks purchase nutritious, high-quality food for hungry individuals and families. This drive was set up by the Greater Chicago Food Depository, but allows users to select the local food bank of their choice with a drop down menu.
Why a Virtual Food Drive? The answer is simple – to get more food to more people in need. Through the Virtual Food Drive, we can purchase food in bulk quantities, at prices well below the market rate. All the items on our food drive have been identified as ones that are in high demand. Won't you please join me in helping to provide food for people who rely on the food banks each week?
We believe Obama supporters can be actively involved in their community and the world around them. Please join us in supporting this effort from now until May 30 by visiting
http://vad.aidmatrix.org/vadxml.cfm?driveid=2682
The Greater Chicago Food Depository does not endorse any particular candidate or political party.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Obama Supporters Virtual Food Drive for GCFD
Obama Supporters Against Hunger and Poverty would like to invite you to join in the fight against hunger in our community by supporting the Greater Chicago Food Depository through the Obama Supporters Virtual Food Drive. All donations raised through the Virtual Food Drive will be earmarked to help the Food Depository purchase nutritious, high-quality food for hungry individuals and families in Chicagoland.
Why a Virtual Food Drive? The answer is simple – to get more food to more people in need. Through the Virtual Food Drive, the Food Depository can purchase food in bulk quantities, at prices well below the market rate. All the items on our food drive have been identified by the Food Depository as ones that are in high demand. Won't you please join me in helping to provide food for the nearly 90,000 people who rely on the Food Depository each week?
We believe Obama supporters can be actively involved in their community and the world around them. Please join us in supporting this effort from now until May 30 by visiting http://vad.aidmatrix.org/vadxml.cfm?driveid=2682
About the Greater Chicago Food Depository:
The Greater Chicago Food Depository, Chicago’s food bank, is a not-for-profit food distribution and training center providing food for hungry people while striving to end hunger in our community. The Food Depository distributes donated and purchased food through a network of 600 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters to almost a half-million adults and children every year. Last year, the Food Depository distributed more than 40 million pounds of nonperishable food and fresh produce, dairy products and meat, the equivalent of more than 84,000 meals every day. Innovative training programs and initiatives developed by the Food Depository also work to provide men, women and children with the tools necessary to break their individual cycles of poverty. For more information, log onto www.chicagosfoodbank.org or call 773-247-FOOD.
The Greater Chicago Food Depository does not endorse any particular candidate or political party.
Why a Virtual Food Drive? The answer is simple – to get more food to more people in need. Through the Virtual Food Drive, the Food Depository can purchase food in bulk quantities, at prices well below the market rate. All the items on our food drive have been identified by the Food Depository as ones that are in high demand. Won't you please join me in helping to provide food for the nearly 90,000 people who rely on the Food Depository each week?
We believe Obama supporters can be actively involved in their community and the world around them. Please join us in supporting this effort from now until May 30 by visiting http://vad.aidmatrix.org/vadxml.cfm?driveid=2682
About the Greater Chicago Food Depository:
The Greater Chicago Food Depository, Chicago’s food bank, is a not-for-profit food distribution and training center providing food for hungry people while striving to end hunger in our community. The Food Depository distributes donated and purchased food through a network of 600 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters to almost a half-million adults and children every year. Last year, the Food Depository distributed more than 40 million pounds of nonperishable food and fresh produce, dairy products and meat, the equivalent of more than 84,000 meals every day. Innovative training programs and initiatives developed by the Food Depository also work to provide men, women and children with the tools necessary to break their individual cycles of poverty. For more information, log onto www.chicagosfoodbank.org or call 773-247-FOOD.
The Greater Chicago Food Depository does not endorse any particular candidate or political party.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
David Beckmann's letter to W: Hunger Crisis
The President of Bread for the World recently wrote to the President of the United States to offer advice on alleviating poverty in the face of the recent food crisis. The formatting may be a little messed up, but the text is here:
----------------------
April 25, 2008
Subject: The Hunger Crisis
Dear President Bush,
You have already responded to the increase in global food prices, and I understand you are considering yet bolder action. This letter recommends elements for a Presidential hunger Initiative. It would include completion of a reformed Farm Bill, funding for assistance to hungry people and agricultural development in poor parts of the world, and global policy initiatives.
- The hunger crisis strengthens your case for finalizing an improved Farm Bill. You have conveyed your views via the Secretary of Agriculture and White House statements, but I hope you will now speak out and intervene personally to close the deal. Congress and the administration must reach agreement on a reformed Farm Bill, so that U.S. farmers know the rules as they plant this spring, and because the hunger crisis requires an urgent response:
-You are right to insist on reducing market-distorting subsidies to affluent landowners. This would make U.S. agriculture more efficient and reduce the extent to which U.S. and European farm policies depress agriculture in developing countries. The money can be better used to help struggling U.S. farm and rural families, for investments in U.S. agricultural productivity and to increase food assistance to hungry people.
-The Farm Bill should include reforms and funding to get more food aid to hungry people in poor countries. Your proposed local-purchase reform would provide about $150 million a year in additional food to hungry people at no extra cost to taxpayers. You should also support the House’s proposed expansion of the McGovern-Dole child nutrition initiative as part of our country’s response to the current hunger crisis.
Higher food and fuel prices, unemployment and more constrained credit have increased hunger and poverty in our own country. Your administration has indicated you are willing to go along with the $10 billion increase in nutrition funding that Congress wants to include in the farm bill. In view of the changed situation, you should actively support increased funding for food stamps and food banks.
A compromise on the Farm Bill is within reach. But in any case, it would be wrong to extend the current Farm Bill for another year in the midst of today’s hunger crisis without strengthening food assistance to hungry people.
Looking beyond the Farm Bill, a Presidential Hunger Initiative should also include additional funding for food assistance and for agricultural development in Africa and other poor parts of the world.
We are impressed by the proposal that is being discussed within your administration -- $2 billion (half for immediate assistance to hungry people and half for agricultural development) and complementary policy initiatives. The immediate assistance component should include $600 million for food aid in this year’s emergency supplemental.
Agricultural development is the way to turn the current hunger crisis into powerful and permanent progress against world hunger. The high prices that are causing hardship for 100 million of the world’s poorest people represent opportunity for another 600 million undernourished people who make their living from agriculture. Agricultural development will reduce food prices and also increase incomes in rural areas. About half of Millennium Challenge Account commitments are for agriculture and rural development, because that is what good governments in poor countries are asking for. But USAID’s agriculture programs were drastically cut in the FY08 appropriations. A Presidential Hunger Initiative should include money for USAID agriculture programs, starting with $300 million in this year’s supplemental. We urge the largest possible increase in poverty-focused development assistance for FY09, including $600 million for USAID agriculture.
We understand that administration officials are considering a presidential speech on the hunger crisis and several global policy initiatives: completing the Doha agriculture deal, steps to make agricultural technology available internationally, and developing biofuels in a way that does not add to hunger. These are great ideas, and we would add one more. A recent assessment of different approaches to child hunger (sponsored by the Gates Foundation and World Bank) shows that the highest impact interventions focus on nutrition for pregnant women and babies and add missing vitamins and minerals to basic foods. Child and maternal undernutrition causes more death and disability than any disease, and you could provide leadership for a targeted, cost- effective global campaign to improve global health through child nutrition.
Finally, the next economic stimulus package in this country should include funding for food stamps. Hungry and poor families were left out of the first stimulus package, even though they are hardest hit by the economic slowdown. The best way to reduce hunger in America is through improvements in earnings, income and assets among low-income people. But the fastest, most direct way to reduce hunger – and stimulate the economy – is to strengthen the food stamp program.
Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision-makers to end hunger at home and abroad. We pray for you and other leaders of this richly blessed nation.
Sincerely yours,
The Rev. David Beckmann
President
----------------------
April 25, 2008
Subject: The Hunger Crisis
Dear President Bush,
You have already responded to the increase in global food prices, and I understand you are considering yet bolder action. This letter recommends elements for a Presidential hunger Initiative. It would include completion of a reformed Farm Bill, funding for assistance to hungry people and agricultural development in poor parts of the world, and global policy initiatives.
- The hunger crisis strengthens your case for finalizing an improved Farm Bill. You have conveyed your views via the Secretary of Agriculture and White House statements, but I hope you will now speak out and intervene personally to close the deal. Congress and the administration must reach agreement on a reformed Farm Bill, so that U.S. farmers know the rules as they plant this spring, and because the hunger crisis requires an urgent response:
-You are right to insist on reducing market-distorting subsidies to affluent landowners. This would make U.S. agriculture more efficient and reduce the extent to which U.S. and European farm policies depress agriculture in developing countries. The money can be better used to help struggling U.S. farm and rural families, for investments in U.S. agricultural productivity and to increase food assistance to hungry people.
-The Farm Bill should include reforms and funding to get more food aid to hungry people in poor countries. Your proposed local-purchase reform would provide about $150 million a year in additional food to hungry people at no extra cost to taxpayers. You should also support the House’s proposed expansion of the McGovern-Dole child nutrition initiative as part of our country’s response to the current hunger crisis.
Higher food and fuel prices, unemployment and more constrained credit have increased hunger and poverty in our own country. Your administration has indicated you are willing to go along with the $10 billion increase in nutrition funding that Congress wants to include in the farm bill. In view of the changed situation, you should actively support increased funding for food stamps and food banks.
A compromise on the Farm Bill is within reach. But in any case, it would be wrong to extend the current Farm Bill for another year in the midst of today’s hunger crisis without strengthening food assistance to hungry people.
Looking beyond the Farm Bill, a Presidential Hunger Initiative should also include additional funding for food assistance and for agricultural development in Africa and other poor parts of the world.
We are impressed by the proposal that is being discussed within your administration -- $2 billion (half for immediate assistance to hungry people and half for agricultural development) and complementary policy initiatives. The immediate assistance component should include $600 million for food aid in this year’s emergency supplemental.
Agricultural development is the way to turn the current hunger crisis into powerful and permanent progress against world hunger. The high prices that are causing hardship for 100 million of the world’s poorest people represent opportunity for another 600 million undernourished people who make their living from agriculture. Agricultural development will reduce food prices and also increase incomes in rural areas. About half of Millennium Challenge Account commitments are for agriculture and rural development, because that is what good governments in poor countries are asking for. But USAID’s agriculture programs were drastically cut in the FY08 appropriations. A Presidential Hunger Initiative should include money for USAID agriculture programs, starting with $300 million in this year’s supplemental. We urge the largest possible increase in poverty-focused development assistance for FY09, including $600 million for USAID agriculture.
We understand that administration officials are considering a presidential speech on the hunger crisis and several global policy initiatives: completing the Doha agriculture deal, steps to make agricultural technology available internationally, and developing biofuels in a way that does not add to hunger. These are great ideas, and we would add one more. A recent assessment of different approaches to child hunger (sponsored by the Gates Foundation and World Bank) shows that the highest impact interventions focus on nutrition for pregnant women and babies and add missing vitamins and minerals to basic foods. Child and maternal undernutrition causes more death and disability than any disease, and you could provide leadership for a targeted, cost- effective global campaign to improve global health through child nutrition.
Finally, the next economic stimulus package in this country should include funding for food stamps. Hungry and poor families were left out of the first stimulus package, even though they are hardest hit by the economic slowdown. The best way to reduce hunger in America is through improvements in earnings, income and assets among low-income people. But the fastest, most direct way to reduce hunger – and stimulate the economy – is to strengthen the food stamp program.
Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision-makers to end hunger at home and abroad. We pray for you and other leaders of this richly blessed nation.
Sincerely yours,
The Rev. David Beckmann
President
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