Bread for the World: Countering Global Hunger

Introduction:
Reverend Art Simon was the pastor of a church in New York City during the 1970s. During this period, he was faced with emergency situations caused by hunger and poverty in his neighborhood. Rev. Simon and other church leaders in the area met to gather ideas on how they could address “the local and global root causes of hunger.” The group visualized a blank space of opportunity for Christians to try to counter hunger from occurring. They made this vision come to life in 1974 when they founded Bread for the World as a way to speak out to their elected officials in Washington D.C. (History and Mission). Today, Bread for the world is a grassroots public interest group that strives to prevent national and world hunger through advocacy and lobbying for

With the help of their diverse leaders, members, outside organizations, and affiliates they work together to achieve their long term policy goals and objectives (Beckmann 201). Organizationally, Bread has a variety of leadership roles, a Board of Directors, and a large staff that run its internal operational functions (Leadership). It has thousands of diverse members that advocate for their shared mission by using their set methods. The main policy goals that Bread for the world focuses on is to fight for more funding for anti-hunger programs and children’s nutritional programs, to gain incarceration reforms for prisoners and to have the United States give more international food aid in times of crisis. On the agricultural policy side, the group supports a program to help educate small farmers and grant them more support so that they may break the cycle of hunger and poverty (Policy Change). Bread for the World employs on-going methods to help achieve their policy goals such as annual letter writing campaigns, media coverage, donations, and prayer (On Going