Hunger in America

November 23, 2007





Related Links:

Bread for the World: "Hunger 2008: Working Harder for Working Families"

"Hunger, Poverty and Biblical Religion" by Bruce C. Birch

"A Biblical Perspective on the Problem of Hunger" by Walter Brueggemann

Reuters: "Senate snarl imperils farm bill" by Charles Abbott, November 6, 2007

Bread for the World: Farm Bill Facts for the United States

NPR: "Why you should care about the farm bill," October 24, 2007

Duke University Divinity School: Our Daily Bread, October 2007

DallasNews Religion: "Religious leaders seek to shape farm bill" by Bob Allen (EthicsDaily.com), July 18, 2007

Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy: "Religious groups push farm policy reforms to combat poverty" by Anne Farris, July 17, 2007

Boston Globe: "A pro-food farm bill" by Hugh Joseph, July 9, 2007

National Council of Churches: "Reform farm bill to reflect American values," April 23, 2007

Related Reading:

SUSTAINABILITY AND SPIRITUALITY by John E. Carroll



DEBORAH POTTER, guest anchor: Last week, the US government said more than 35 million Americans went without food at some point during 2006. This week, the non-profit group Bread for the World issued its own report recommending strategies for the US to combat hunger. Bob Abernethy sat down with David Beckmann, Bread for the World president and a Lutheran pastor, to discuss hunger in this country and what can be done about it.

BOB ABERNETHY: David, welcome.

Reverend DAVID BECKMANNN (President, Bread for the World): Thank you.

ABERNETHY: Put some flesh and blood, if you would on the statistics: 35-and-a-half million people in this country who -- what happens?

Rev. BECKMANN: Well, in our country it's not hunger like Ethiopia. The typical pattern of hunger in our country is that the family runs out of food. They may have food assistance from the government, but food assistance runs out by the end of the third week of the month. It's not enough. So the moms go without food. The kids go without food maybe the last few days of the month. So then the whole month they don't buy good-for-you food. They don't have quite enough food.

ABERNETHY: Is this all over? All kinds of people?

Rev. BECKMANN: It is all over the country. It's especially children, especially little children. In our country, one in four children under the age of six lives in a household that runs out of food, and even moderate under-nutrition does real damage, because the nutrition goes to the vital organs and the brain half shuts down. So kids aren't alert. They're naughty. By the time they go to kindergarten they're acting up. Letting so many kids go hungry does real damage to our whole nation.

ABERNETHY: You at Bread for the World, you've been fighting this, fighting hunger for a long time. But your emphasis has shifted or is shifting from emergency measures to trying to fight poverty itself?

Reverend David Beckmann
Rev. BECKMANN: Well, both. We're working this year on farm bill reform, which is a good way to both deal with food assistance for hungry families and helping some families get out of poverty. Much of the money in the farm bill goes to affluent families; some very wealthy landholders have money in the farm bill. So there's an opportunity this year to shift some of those resources, first, to farm and rural families who really need help to make a living; and then also to strengthen food assistance to hungry families in our country.

ABERNETHY: And how does what's going here compare to what's going on around the world?

Rev. BECKMANN: Well, Bread for the World works on both hunger worldwide and in our country, and the irony is that the world is making progress against hunger and poverty. Countries as diverse as China and Uganda and Chile are making progress, while in the USA, at least in this decade, we've been going the other way. We have more hungry and poor people in the country than we did in the year 2000.

ABERNETHY: And working people are hungry?

Rev. BECKMANN: Absolutely. It's increasing numbers of working people. Nowadays, you know, if you go into a McDonald's and there's a lady behind that cash register, if she's got kids at home those kids aren't eating all the time. I'm a preacher, so I believe that if you don't work you shouldn't eat. It's in the Bible. But the corollary is if you do work you ought to be able to eat, and that's not true in our country anymore.

ABERNETHY: David Beckmann of Bread for the World, many thanks.

Rev. BECKMANN: Thank you.

Thanks

O Gracious God, we give you thanks for your overflowing generosity to us. Thank you for the blessings of the food we eat and especially for this feast today. Thank you for our home and family and friends, especially for the presence of those gathered here. Thank you for our health, our work and our play. Please send help me those who are hungry, alone, sick and suffering war and violence. Open my heart to your love. We ask your blessing through Christ your son. Amen. and Amen

Truth of the truth

Gentle Reader,
You need this blog just to keep it real!

"For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof." Proverbs 1:29-30 Just about every one of us have heard the old adage that says, "What you don't know can't hurt you." Pausing to consider that statement, we can't help but disagree. If a soldier doesn't know that his enemy is creeping up, the danger still exists. The absence of knowledge (ignorance) is not exactly a safer place than the fullness of knowledge. In fact, quite the opposite. Now imagine, given the opportunity to know something about his enemy, this particular soldier says to his informant, "Don't tell me, I don't want to know." For those of us who thirst for understanding, this type of nonsense goes against everything we stand for. Although we are not among those who "hate knowledge," it is important to recognize that such men have always been around. Instead of saying, "I don't want to know," their modern words include, "Don't tell me, let me guess." Such men live on theories rather than verifiable facts and absolute truth. This can be clearly seen by the absurd integration of evolution into our elementary classrooms. No man of Darwin can prove their theories and yet we find such theories at the heart of public education. Those who live on the heels of every random opinion most certainly have no "fear of the Lord." Given the "counsel" of the Word of God, they would refuse it as nothing of value. And upon being questioned with "reproof" by the very same counsel, they would mock the very questions they are asked. There is a reason why such characters will one day call out to the ear of wisdom and find a cold shoulder. God will not laugh at man's calamity except their be men who once had every opportunity to know the truth and turned away at each moment. If someone you love has a tendency to turn their back on knowledge, take advantage of every door that they leave open. God's desire is that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2:4). Yours are the feet that come preaching what they need. Hands may still be raised to hold you off with words like, "Don't tell me" or "I don't want to know." Stand on the solid foundation of God's Word and tell them anyways.

Not another Blog!

Dear Gentle reader,
It is because I speak out that I receive more than 500 hate emails a day. But You have been taken advantage of and as the Bible says.

My people are destroyed for lack of KNOWLEDGE: because thou hast rejected KNOWLEDGE

So here without all the trappings you can read the "Truth of the truth"
Now then since this is a Thanksgiving season in America lets consider those who have no voice to speak of. What I want you to is search deep within yourself and see if you have feelings unexpressed that perhaps you should stand up for Your country, Your family and your neighbor.

Rush Linbaugh says

There Are No More "Hungry" in America (But the Media Will Still Cover Homeless on Thanksgiving to Make Us Feel Guilty)."

But before you stop reading read on just a wee bit more.
You have been taken to the cleaners by your Government right down to the core.