Policy Focus
Policy Makers Must Work Together to Reduce
Hunger Now and End It Within a Generation
March 1 marked the launch of A Place at the Table:
Bread for the World’s 2013 Offering of Letters. This year, we
are doubling our effort on behalf of hungry people. We are
calling for a comprehensive, united plan to end hunger. And
we are continuing to call on lawmakers to protect vital antihunger programs—especially during budget negotiations.
1. The Presidential Campaign: We are petitioning the
President to set a goal and work with Congress on a plan
to end hunger.
2. The Congressional Campaign: We are writing letters
to Congress urging our legislators to protect programs
that effectively reduce hunger and help people move out
of poverty. We are also asking Congress to work with the
president on plan to end hunger.
Both campaigns are important, and we are urging our
members—and all people—to participate in our efforts to reduce hunger now and effectively end it altogether within a
generation.
On February 12, the President Barack Obama delivered
his State of the Union address to Congress and was the most
vocal he has been about this country’s need to address poverty in the United States and around the world: “You know,
in many places, people live on little more than a dollar a
day. So the United States will join with our allies to eradicate
such extreme poverty in the next two decades ….”
The president also stressed reducing poverty in the United
States. He reiterated that message a few days later in Chicago:
“If we gather together what works, we can extend
more ladders of opportunity for anybody who’s working to build a strong, middle-class life for themselves.
Because in America, your destiny shouldn’t be determined by where you live, where you were born. It
should be determined by how big you’re willing to
dream, how much effort and sweat and tears you’re
willing to put in to realizing that dream.”
While the president continues to publicly appeal for the
policies and priorities outlined in his State of the Union
address, Congress remains focused on the approaching
across-the-board cuts, known as sequestration. The cuts
will total $85 billion for the rest of the 2013 fiscal year, with
nondefense yearly appropriated programs like Women,
Infants, and Children (WIC) and poverty-focused development assistance (PFDA) facing a 5.3 percent cut. Without
congressional action, the cuts will hit nearly every federal
program indiscriminately—although, fortunately, many
low-income programs like the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps), the
refundable tax