Ending Hunger in America: The 2014 Hunger Report

On Nov. 25, the Bread for the World Institute released Ending Hunger in America: the 2014 Hunger Report. The report recommends four bold steps that our government and our society can take to end hunger in the United States by 2030.  Each step is discussed in a chapter of the report (see link to each of those chapters, plus a chapter on addressing hunger at the global level).

"Returning the economy closer to the full employment level of 2000 would also decrease hunger from today’s rate of 14.5 percent,' said the Bread for the World Institute. "By making jobs a priority, it would be possible for President Obama and Congress to reduce hunger in America by 25 percent by 2017. In addition to investing in good jobs as a way of ending hunger, the report also recommends ending the political brinkmanship that led to the sequester, or automatic budget cuts, and focusing on investing in people, strengthening the safety net and encouraging community partnerships."

Here are a couple of points from the executive summary of the report (available for download on an IPad or Kindle).

Ending hunger in America is possible. It is not an impossible dream. If we decided we really wanted to do it, we could wake up one morning in 2030 and be living in a country where hunger is rare and temporary, not the shared experience of millions of Americans that it is in 2014.

2030 is not an arbitrary date to wake up to an America without hunger. Although most of this report is about ending hunger in the United States, it also calls on the U.S. government to work within the international community to forge a unified and universal set of global development goals to follow the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), whose deadline is December 2015. A post-MDG agreement should include a specific goal to end hunger and achieve food security and good nutrition in all countries by 2030. “MDG” may not be a household word in the United States, but the MDG experience is inspirational: setting goals led to concrete progress on global poverty.

Chapter by Chapter

• Introduction: Setting a Goal and Developing a Plan
• Chapter 1: Getting Back to Full Employment
• Chapter 2: A Fair Deal for Workers
• Chapter 3: Inclusion for the Excluded and Denied
• Chapter 4: Local Leaders Working with National Partners
• Chapter 5: Ending Extreme Poverty and Hunger Worldwide
• Conclusion: Engaging Americans in the Search for Solutions
• Christian Study Guide

Full Report in PDF

Resumen y Guía de Estudio en Español