wfn.org | ELCA Supports Hunger Relief Act, Increase in U.S. Minimum Wage

[News News <NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 23, 2000

ELCA SUPPORTS HUNGER RELIEF ACT, INCREASE IN U.S. MINIMUM WAGE
00-071-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA)-- Earning minimum wage in the United States puts
millions of workers and their children in limbo -- making too much to
receive assistance and making too little to survive, said Kay A.
Bengston, assistant director for public policy advocacy, Lutheran Office
for Governmental Affairs (LOGA), Washington, D.C.
     LOGA called on Congress to pass the Hunger Relief Act and the Food
Stamps Outreach and Research for Kids (FORK) Act this year, and to raise
the minimum wage one dollar over the next two years.  LOGA is the
federal public policy advocacy office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America (ELCA).
     "Our congregations and agencies are doing what they can to provide
food for hungry people, but these efforts are inadequate," said
Bengston.  "The amount of food provided is often insufficient and the
frequency of visits by a single family to a food pantry is often
limited."
     Bengston said she heard several related stories from ELCA pastors.
"One of our Lutheran pastors who is also a nurse provides health care to
families who come to a local soup kitchen.  One mother confided that she
is very concerned about her child's lead level.  The mother has found
her child licking ash trays because she is so hungry," she said.
     "Others tell us that families coming to their soup kitchens are
often paying 85 to 90 percent of their income for housing and have
little money left to buy food," said Bengston.
     "Work at low wages has not necessarily made children in families
better off economically.  The cost of food, housing, child care and
transportation is likely to be more than their income," she said.
     The ELCA Churchwide Assembly adopted a statement on economic life,
"Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All," in August 1999.
     "The statement raises the importance of assisting working families
who are struggling on very low wages," said Bengston.  "Attending to
their needs is critical to their personal dignity and individual well
being."
     "Poverty is a crisis of the whole human community, not only of
those who are poor or vulnerable," she said.  "It is the responsibility
of the whole human community to address this problem, not just of those
who choose to give to churches and charities for this purpose."
     "The current vibrant economy has benefitted a significant number
of families.  Childhood poverty is down," said Bengston.  "But,
unfortunately, the depth of poverty has increased among those struggling
at the bottom of the economic ladder."
     "A one-dollar increase in the minimum wage would mean an
additional $2,000 per year for minimum-wage earners working full time,"
she added.
     The Hunger Relief Act has been the focus of Bread for the World's
2000 campaign, "A Fair Share: Working to End Hunger."  Bread for the
World is a nonpartisan organization of 44,000 Christians who lobby
Congress and the administration on public policies affecting hunger and
poverty.
     "As much as we'd like to think that ours is a generous society,
the fact is that the
richest country in the world does less than any other developed nation
to combat
pervasive hunger," said the Rev. David M. Beckmann, an ELCA pastor and
president of Bread for the World.
     "Low-income working people in the United States should not be
forced to live
with the persistent threat of hunger.  The Hunger Relief Act would
extend food stamp
benefits to more hungry families," said Beckmann.
     "One full-time minimum-wage worker earns only $10,712 annually --
falling $3,000 below the poverty line for a family of three and $348
below the poverty line for a family of two," he added.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html