wfn.org | Offering of Letters campaign to focus on Hunger Relief Act

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 9, 2000        News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202)
546-8722·Washington     10-21-71B{130}

NOTE TO EDITORS:  A black-and-white vertical 5x8 inch photo with caption is
available by e-mail from amoiso@bread.org to use with this article, or call
Ext. 210 at the number listed below for Bread for the World.

WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- A letter-writing campaign this spring will focus on
urging Congress to repair the Food Stamp Program and raise the minimum wage
as first steps in eradicating hunger in the United States.

The Offering of Letters, an effort supported by churches throughout the
country, is organized by Bread for the World, a Maryland-based Christian
citizens' movement against hunger that includes United Methodists on its
board.

Under the banner "A Fair Share: Working to End Hunger," United Methodists
and other people of faith will urge Congress to pass the Hunger Relief Act
to strengthen key provisions of the Food Stamp Program.

"In the United States - in the midst of an economic boom - 31 million people
live in families that can't always afford the food they need," said the Rev.
David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. "But hunger is one problem
we can actually solve." 

This year's correspondence with members of Congress will focus on ending
hunger in the United States. Last year's letters concerned the worldwide
Jubilee 2000 movement to obtain debt relief for poor countries in an effort
to reduce hunger in other parts of the planet.

"No other developed nation in the world puts up with the levels of hunger
countenanced in this country," said the Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett, top
staff executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society. The
Washington-based agency advocates policies to reduce hunger and other
injustices.

"Jesus calls the churches to stand with poor and marginalized people as they
seek to wipe out hunger in the new millennium," Fassett said. "Bread for the
World's "Fair Share" campaign can help churches make an effective response."

The Hunger Relief Act, proposed in the Senate (S.1805) and the House (H.R.
3192) by members of both parties, would base food stamp eligibility
exclusively on need, overriding the 1996 welfare law that bars two-thirds of
legal immigrants from such assistance. 

The act would allow states to permit low-income parents to have a reliable
car for work. The current limit on car value is $4,650, a figure that has
grown only $150 since 1977 and is below the ceiling that most states allow
working parents who qualify for cash assistance.

The act would also raise the cap on what a needy family is allowed to spend
on shelter, including utilities. The cap reduces food stamps to more than
729,000 households with children as housing costs rise. The act would raise
the shelter deduction cap to $340 and index it to inflation.

Another provision of the act authorizes additional appropriations of $100
million over five years for the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which
meets short-term nutrition needs of families in crisis. Need for emergency
food has increased 15 to 20 percent in the past year, according to food bank
administrators. 

For more information on the Fair Share Offering of Letters, including fact
sheets on the Food Stamp Program and federal minimum wage, churches may
visit Bread for the World's Internet site at www.bread.org or write to Bread
for the World, 1100 Wayne Ave., Suite 1000, Silver Spring, MD 20910. The
toll-free telephone number is (800) 82-BREAD.
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United Methodist News Service
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