2015 Resolutions: Protecting Child Nutrition Programs, Empowering Women Around the World, Elect to End Hunger, Much More....

Whether you put a lot of stock in New Year's resolutions, every Jan. 1 offers an opportunity to develop a list of actions that are possible in the coming 365 days. The actions are goals--but also more than just goals. They demand commitment, dedication and mindfulness. For those of us involved with Bread for the World, the Bread Blog offers some handy suggestions on how we can take action to address hunger in 2015. The  2015 Offering of Letters leads the list of resolutions. 

Photo: USDA

Coordinate an Offering of Letters
Resolve to coordinate an Offering of Letters at your church. In 2015, we will be advocating to protect and strengthen child nutrition programs as Congress begins their work to reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act. Contact your regional organizer for more information. Kits and companion website are expected to be available by the end of January or early February.


Start a study group. 
The Bread for the World Institute's 2015 Hunger Report, When Women Flourish…We Can End Hunger, provides a timely topic. The report looks at discrimination as a cause of persistent hunger and makes policy and program recommendations in order to empower women both in the United States and around the world. Increasing women’s earning potential by boosting bargaining power, reducing gender inequality in unpaid work, increasing women’s political representation, and eliminating the wage gap between male and female labor directly contributes to ending hunger.  The report includes a Christian study guide.

Make hunger an election issue
As we enter into a new elections cycle, urge potential leaders to talk about hunger and poverty publicly.  Bread wants to help end hunger by 2030, and to do that, it needs to help build the political will to make hunger a national priority by 2017. If you live in Iowa, Florida, Virginia, or Ohio and want to get involved in the campaign to make hunger an issue in the presidential elections, contact Stephen Hill, Bread's senior organizer for elections issues.

Here are  a few more resolutions suggested in the Bread blog. Happy 2015!