About Bread for the World Comprehensive Timeline: 1974 - 2014 | Page 3

By 1992, the provisions provided $2.7 billion in debt
relief—Bread’s initial foray into seeking debt relief for
impoverished countries.

though many legislators support harsh provisions in
the welfare reform legislation of 1996, including deep
cuts to food stamps, nearly 700 candidates, including
40 percent of those elected to Congress, commit to
supporting federal legislation to help overcome childhood hunger.

1991

President George H.W. Bush signs the Horn of Africa
Recovery and Food Security Act, which mandates a
shift in U.S. policy from Cold War purposes to peaceful development that has saved hundreds of thousands
of lives. One provision, for example, makes it illegal
for the United States to give aid to dictators in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan.

1997

Bread helps win back $1.6 billion in funding for nutrition programs, which keeps 400,000 people from losing WIC or food stamps. In 1998, Congress approves
an additional $818 million in food stamp restorations
for 250,000 vulnerable legal immigrants, children, elderly, and disabled people.

When a dictator was overthrown in Ethiopia, it allowed USAID to begin assistance to the new government without delay.

1998

1992

Bread works to revive U.S. support for agricultural
development in low-income countries through the Africa: Seeds of Hope bill. It becomes law in November,
redirecting U.S. resources toward small-scale farmers
and struggling rural communities in Africa. The same
bill expands the emergency grain reserve that Bread
helped establish in 1977. The reserve eventually becomes a cash fund, now called the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust, which finances immediate humanitarian food assistance in crisis situations.

In 1992 and 1993, Bread helps win almost $2 billion
in increases to WIC, Head Start, and Job Corps—three
cost-effective federal childhood programs that benefit
about 1 million infants, mothers, children, and youth.

1993

Bread helps to protect poverty-focused international
development programs from funding cuts. Bread also
organizes a broad coalition to make sustainable development—the reduction of hunger and poverty in environmentally sound ways—the leading purpose of U.S.
foreign assistance. The president’s 1994 foreign aid
reform proposals incorporated concepts and language
from the resolution.

Between 1980 and 2006, this reserve was tapped a dozen times to provide more than 6 million metric tons of
food, giving the equivalent of a nearly five-month supply of food to 100 million people. During 2008, USDA
sold the remaining wheat so that currently the Emerson Trust holds only cash (about $311 million in fiscal
year 2013). The cash can be used to finance activities
or purchase commodities to meet emergency food
needs. In FY2010, the Emerson Trust provided more
than $8 million in food assistance funds to Ethiopia,
Kenya, Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Afghanistan. 

1994

Bread helps win $260 million in increases for WIC
in 1994 and again in 1996, giving much-needed assistance to an additional 350,000 young children and
pregnant women.

1999

1995

Bread leads the legislative coalition of the Jubilee
campaign to relieve the debt burden of poor countries.
The United States leads other wealthy nations and
financial institutions in establishing an international
program of debt relief for highly indebted low-income
countries, allowing them to greatly expand basic education and health services The Jubilee campaign begins a process that has since reduced the debt obligations of 36 relatively well-governed poor countries by

As Congress slashes development aid to Africa, Bread
helps protect at least $100 million in lifesaving aid.

1996

Bread’s “Elect to End Childhood Hunger” Offering
of Letters campaign educates voters and candidates
about widespread hunger among U.S. children and
the importance of national nutrition programs. Al3

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