How to End Hunger

Policy Change

This is an important time to get involved and make your voice heard. Congress and the president are making major decisions that could hit individuals and families living in poverty and at risk of hunger hard. Bread for the World’s policy agenda focuses on the most timely issues that impact hunger. These are some of the issues that Congress or the administration needs to address in order accomplish this goal.

Increase funding for global maternal and child nutrition

The U.S. government plays a crucial role in the fight to end malnutrition among mothers and children overseas, and our nation’s continued commitment is key to ending this global scourge. Bread for the World wants Congress to increase funding for the nutrition and health of mothers, newborns, and young children. Bread and its partners believe more funding for nutrition programs is needed in fiscal year 2017. Increasing the U.S.'s investment in global maternal and child nutrition is central to successful development and helps improve the potential of millions of people. This is the focus of Bread’s 2016 Offering of Letters campaign.

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Protecting anti-hunger programs from harmful cuts

In Congress, political forces are pushing to slash poverty-focused programs. The tight fiscal environment means members of Congress are looking to make cuts wherever they can. Foreign assistance, SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), and other programs that help people struggling with hunger are at serious risk. They don’t have high-powered lobbyists and well-funded campaigns looking out for their interests. Your voice is critical.

Domestic child nutrition programs are up for renewal

Congress must reauthorize the national school lunch and breakfast programs, the summer meals program, the child care food program, and the WIC nutrition program for pregnant and new mothers along with their small children. This issue was the focus of Bread's 2015 Offering of Letters campaign.

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Criminal justice reform

There is growing bipartisan momentum for reforming the U.S. criminal justice and prison systems. Formerly incarcerated people are far more likely to face hunger and poverty. Many employers refuse to hire people with criminal records. Laws ban people with various convictions from accessing certain safety-net programs. Without income and without access to federal benefits, returning citizens are vulnerable to hunger and recidivism.

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International food-aid reform

In overseas emergencies, our federal government often sends assistance in the form of food aid. While food is an important tool to saving millions of lives each year, it is time to update the government’s programs in this area to enable them to respond better in a 21st century, globalized world. Reforms to the food-aid programs would allow food aid to benefit tens of millions more people each year—at no additional cost to U.S. taxpayers.

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Agriculture and Trade

Trade can be a powerful tool for the reduction of poverty in developing nations. But U.S. agriculture and trade policy has sometimes undermined African countries’ efforts to take the first step out of poverty.

U.S. Federal Budget

The federal budget is statement of who we are as a nation. It is more than a financial document. It is a moral one. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). This applies to nations as well as people.

Tax Credits

When you think about a household budget, what are the expenses? Big ones like rent, transportation, child care, and utilities are mostly fixed expenses. Food ends up being the most flexible necessary budget item. With tax policies we can protect money that many low-income families need for food.

Incarceration and Hunger

Bread for the World believes that our criminal justice system is broken. The inequities in the system are stark and alarming. The brokenness of the criminal justice system leads to hunger and poverty. Bread is committed to doing our part to end hunger and poverty in ways that advance justice. 

Global Nutrition

Ending hunger around the world is not just about providing people with enough food — the calories. It’s also about providing the right nutrients. Globally, 165 million children are stunted and will not have the chance to achieve their full potential because of poor nutrition early in life. 

Foreign assistance

Think of foreign assistance, and you might picture food relief or rebuilding towns following disasters. However, U.S. foreign assistance includes many long-term development programs to break the cycle of hunger and poverty.

Immigration Reform

Bread for the World sees global progress against poverty as progress against hunger as well. One of the major reasons people leave their home countries is to escape poverty and improve their livelihoods.

Food-Aid Reform

When a disaster strikes – such as 2013’s typhoon in the Philippines, or 2010’s earthquake in Haiti, or the crisis in Syria – people overseas receive emergency food from the United States. The government also provides ongoing food aid to address the “silent disaster” of hunger and malnutrition.

Climate change

People in many poor countries suffer from climate change even though they contribute least to greenhouse gas emissions. The effects of climate change are becoming more noticeable in wealthier parts of the world, but low-income countries are likely to remain the most vulnerable.

Nutrition in the United States

Bread for the World is urging Congress to renew our federal government’s major child nutrition programs, including those for school meals, summer feeding, and the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) nutrition program for pregnant and new mothers along with their small children.