wfn.org | Newsline: Church leaders meet with Sec. of Agriculture on childhood hunger

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

>Church of the Brethren Newsline

Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, Director of News Services

>cobnews@brethren.org or (cell) 224-735-9692

CHURCH LEADERS MEET WITH SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE ON CHILDHOOD HUNGER

July 2, 2010 (Pittsburgh, PA) -- For all its wealth, our country still has  
children going hungry. And we can do something about it. That was the take- 
home message from a June 15 meeting with US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vi 
lsack, held by 20 Christian leaders and hunger advocates including Jay Witt 
meyer, executive director of the Church of the Brethren’s Global Mission  
Partnerships.

Meeting with the group around a table symbolically spread with five loaves  of 
bread and two fish, secretary Vilsack said he sees the biblical story of  the 
feeding of the multitude as a miracle of overcoming the fear of sharin g.

The numbers on childhood hunger are alarming: nearly one in four children i n 
the United States lives in a family that struggles to put food on the tab le. 
The quickest and most direct way to help them is through federal nutrit ion 
programs.

Right now, Congress is debating and renewing an important group of nutritio n 
programs aimed specifically at children. The child nutrition reauthorizat ion 
legislation to be passed this year includes school lunch and breakfast,  summer 
food, and WIC (the Women, Infants, and Children program).

Bread for the World president David Beckmann said that secretary Vilsack "m ade 
a strong plea for churches to provide more leadership on policy issues  that 
affect hungry people, notably supporting the president’s proposed $1  billion 
increase in annual funding for child nutrition programs."

The administration’s request would help more eligible children to gain ac cess 
to these programs--and, of course, to the food they need. As secretary  Vilsack 
emphasized, the most pressing need is for better access to meals i n the 
summer; for every 100 children who eat free or reduced-price school l unches, 
only 11 receive lunch during the summer.

The church leaders concluded the meeting with a prayer for the secretary, t he 
USDA child nutrition programs, Congress, and the hungry children who awa it 
their action.

"It was very powerful to have a Cabinet secretary encourage grassroots advo 
cacy on hunger," said Max Finberg, director of USDA’s Center for Faith-Ba sed 
and Neighborhood Partnerships. "I think the church leaders who came to  the 
meeting were encouraged, and also challenged to do more."

For more information on childhood hunger in the US and how you can support  
policies and programs to help hungry children, visit www.bread.org<http://w 
ww.bread.org

. For more about the hunger relief work of the Church of the Brethren, go t o 
www.brethren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=go_give_food_crisis<http://ww 
w.brethren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=go_give_food_crisis>.

(Bread for the World provided the text for this release.)

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continu ing 
the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in  
community. It is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith traditions and  is 
one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrated its 300th annive rsary 
in 2008. It counts about 125,000 members across the US and Puerto Ric o, and 
has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, the DR, Brazil, Haiti,  and India.

># # #

>CONTACT:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

>Director of News Services

>Church of the Brethren

>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120

>800-323-8039 ext. 260

>cell: 224-735-9692

>cobnews@brethren.org