Threatened food aid cuts prompt personal fasts in protest
By JERRY HAGSTROM
Three anti-hunger leaders plan personal fasts to call attention to budgetary threats to international food and agriculture programs, launching a campaign that asks others to “join in fasting, prayer and personal sacrifice to form a circle of protection around programs benefiting vulnerable people here and abroad.”
The three are Tony Hall, executive director of the Alliance to End Hunger; David Beckman, president of Bread for the World and a World Food Prize winner; and Jim Wallis, president and CEO of Sojourners, a Christian social justice organization.
The campaign, to be announced Monday, will extend beyond food programs to a “call on national leaders to not balance the budget on the backs of poor people,” the three said in a media advisory.
Among the groups backing the campaign are the Alliance to End Hunger, American Jewish World Service, Bread for the World, Congressional Hunger Center, Feeding America, Food for the Hungry, Islamic Relief USA, Meals on Wheels Association of America, New Manna Inc., ONE, The Society of Saint Andrew, Sojourners and World Food Program USA. The groups have also set up a website, [HungerFast.org.](http://hungerfast.org)
H.R. 1, the House-passed bill to fund the government through September 30, would make major cuts in international food aid and agricultural development programs in poor countries. Some members of Congress have suggested that cuts to food stamps may also be part of addressing the budget deficit.
Hall, a former Ohio congressman and retired ambassador to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture, said in a blog post that he fasted in 1993 when he was a Democratic House member.
“I was mad that leaders in Washington, D.C. were going to eliminate the only committee that worked with the poor and hungry,” he wrote. “So I fasted for 22 days – water only. It was pretty lonely at first, but eventually 6,000 high schools and 200 universities joined me and the fast really caught on. The media began to publicize it. The results were powerful. I started the Congressional Hunger Center that has trained at least 60 professional hunger workers each year over the last 17 years. The World Bank held a conference after the fast and committed well over 100 million in micro-credit to poor people. These were just some of the results.”
Although hunger has been eliminated or reduced in many countries since that time and 43 million Americans, the highest number ever, now get food stamp benefits, Hall said hunger continues.
“Today, March 2011, my heart is again filled with grief and pain for the suffering of hungry people, because the situation is worse,” he wrote. “There are 50 million hungry Americans, 17 million of them children. 25,000 people worldwide will die today from hunger and hunger related diseases. One billion are malnourished worldwide.”
Three anti-hunger leaders plan personal fasts to call attention to budgetary threats to international food and agriculture programs, launching a campaign that asks others to “join in fasting, prayer and personal sacrifice to form a circle of protection around programs benefiting vulnerable people here and abroad.”
The three are Tony Hall, executive director of the Alliance to End Hunger; David Beckman, president of Bread for the World and a World Food Prize winner; and Jim Wallis, president and CEO of Sojourners, a Christian social justice organization.
The campaign, to be announced Monday, will extend beyond food programs to a “call on national leaders to not balance the budget on the backs of poor people,” the three said in a media advisory.
Among the groups backing the campaign are the Alliance to End Hunger, American Jewish World Service, Bread for the World, Congressional Hunger Center, Feeding America, Food for the Hungry, Islamic Relief USA, Meals on Wheels Association of America, New Manna Inc., ONE, The Society of Saint Andrew, Sojourners and World Food Program USA. The groups have also set up a website, [HungerFast.org.](http://hungerfast.org)
H.R. 1, the House-passed bill to fund the government through September 30, would make major cuts in international food aid and agricultural development programs in poor countries. Some members of Congress have suggested that cuts to food stamps may also be part of addressing the budget deficit.
Hall, a former Ohio congressman and retired ambassador to the U.N. Agencies for Food and Agriculture, said in a blog post that he fasted in 1993 when he was a Democratic House member.
“I was mad that leaders in Washington, D.C. were going to eliminate the only committee that worked with the poor and hungry,” he wrote. “So I fasted for 22 days – water only. It was pretty lonely at first, but eventually 6,000 high schools and 200 universities joined me and the fast really caught on. The media began to publicize it. The results were powerful. I started the Congressional Hunger Center that has trained at least 60 professional hunger workers each year over the last 17 years. The World Bank held a conference after the fast and committed well over 100 million in micro-credit to poor people. These were just some of the results.”
Although hunger has been eliminated or reduced in many countries since that time and 43 million Americans, the highest number ever, now get food stamp benefits, Hall said hunger continues.
“Today, March 2011, my heart is again filled with grief and pain for the suffering of hungry people, because the situation is worse,” he wrote. “There are 50 million hungry Americans, 17 million of them children. 25,000 people worldwide will die today from hunger and hunger related diseases. One billion are malnourished worldwide.”
