It's Not Too Early to Start Thinking about the 2010 Offering of Letters

The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are just around the corner, which means there is probably a lot on your mind right now (not to mention the need to slow down and take time to give thanks and to enjoy a prayerful Advent).

So now would not be the right time to have you start thinking about the 2010 Offering of Letters. Right?

Wrong.  It's never too early to at least become familiar with the subject of our letter-writing campaign. Perhaps you can familiarize yourself with the topic, and then set it aside until after the holidays.

We are planning to have an Offering of Letters workshop in February or March, hopefully in each of our three congressional districts in New Mexico.  Stay tuned for more details.   Here is a little blurb about the topic of our 2010 OL.

Bread for the World’s 2010 Offering of Letters will push for changes in the U.S. tax code that will benefit low-income families and help them lift themselves and their children out of hunger and poverty.

Here is the relevant text in the brochure that Bread for the World put together regarding the 2010 campaign

                                Brochure

It sounds so obvious:  Parents want to do their best to care for their children. 

But many hard-working Americans can’t even feed their families. Housing and food costs have risen while wages have stagnated. Low-income workers especially cannot keep up, and their children suffer.

Hunger will persist as long as people lack the resources to buy food.

Bread for the World has a long history of working to expand the national nutrition programs, our country’s safety net for vulnerable people. These are critical services that keep people from going hungry. But nutrition programs alone are not enough to help families overcome hunger. Low-income families also need broader measures to reduce poverty and help them build financial stability.

 

Current tax credits for low-income workers were designed so that people who work would have enough financial resources to meet their basic needs, including food. But that’s not happening anymore. These programs are falling short of their intent. The result: Millions of working families are struggling to put food on the table. Millions of children are trying to learn, to play, to live their lives without adequate nutrition—sometimes with empty stomachs.

In 2010, tax policies will be debated as previous tax cuts enacted earlier this decade are due to expire. Congress will decide which ones to renew or change. The needs of low-income families and hungry children will be lost in this debate—unless senators and representatives hear from you.

The president and others have said it should be our nation’s goal to end childhood hunger in the United States by 2015. Achieving this goal would require not only stronger nutrition programs but also long-term measures to reduce poverty such as tax credits for low-income families.

Bread for the World’s 2010 Offering of Letters will push for changes in the U.S. tax code that will benefit low-income families and help them lift themselves and their children out of hunger and poverty.

Expanding existing tax credits to low-income working people will help to make work pay and enable parents to educate and feed their children. Please join us. Order your 2010 Offering of Letters kit so you can learn how to get your church, campus, or community to take action.

Download a copy of the fuil brochure (in .pdf format)