A Thank You for Your Anti-Hunger Work

Ex-Rep. Alan Wheat (left) receives a recognition from Charlie Lackamp, volunteer coordinator in the Missouri Fifth District

Lobby Day provides a great opportunity to recognize members of Congress who have made a strong commitment to address hunger and poverty.  This year it was Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan and Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana who received a recognition from Bread at a reception after Lobby Day.

But it doesn't always have to be on Lobby Day when a legislator is recognized for his or her anti-hunger work.  In the 1980s,  our group of Bread members in the Missouri Fifth Congressional District in Kansas City gave this recognition to Rep. Alan Wheat for his consistent support of Bread's position on anti-hunger and anti-poverty initiatives.  Incidentally, Rep. Wheat was on the now-defunct House Select Committee on Hunger, founded by his friend, then Rep. Tony Hall.

Tony Hall is now executive director of The Alliance to End Hunger.

Alan Wheat left the House for an unsuccesful run for the U.S. Senate.  After that, he spent a couple of years as vice president of public policy and Government Relations for the international relief organization CARE. ( I still have the necktie that Alan Wheat gave me when he worked at CARE,  We were both on the Bread board at that time).  In 1998, he formed  Wheat Government Relations, a political consultancy firm.

(Photo from Carlos Navarro's collection of Bread pictures)