Save the Date: Offering of Letters Workshops

Our regional organizer Matt Newell Ching came up with these wonderful post cards for our Offering of Letters workshops. The post card pictured on this post is for our Albuquerque workshop at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church on Saturday, March 24, at 9:30 p.m.-noon

Matt also put together a post card for our workshop in Santa Fe on Sunday, March 25, at First Presbyterian Church, 2:30-5:00

We are fortunate that Matt will be joining us at both workshops to tell us about the Offering of Letters, Seeds of Change: Help Farmers. End Hunger.
















Speakers
In addition, we've invited several wonderful speakers to give us a bit of background on the Farm Bill, which is the topic of our letter-writing campaign.

Joining us in Albuquerque will be Laurel Wyckoff of the New Mexico Association of Food Banks and Sister Joan Brown, a board member of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference.

In Santa Fe, our guests will be Rozie Kennedy, the coordinator of the New Mexico Task Force to End Hunger; and Mark Winne, the communications director of the Community Food Security Coalition.

Please join us at one or both of these events.

Green Ribbon Prayer

This year, many denominations, religious organizations and communities of faith are working together to urge Congress to ensure that the 2007 Farm Bill places a high priority on alleviating hunger, promoting economic justice and sustainability, and recognizing and supporting those who help put food on our tables, whether it's family farmers or farm workers.

One partner in this effort, the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, has advocated for these principles for a long time. The NCRLC's efforts, including the Green Ribbon Campaign and Eating is a Moral Act, were developed primarily for Roman Catholics (especially those of us who live in urban areas), but these campaigns can be applied universally.

If you would like to know more about the NCRLC's efforts, please join us at a Bread for the World workshop on Bread for the World's Offering of Letters, Seeds of Change: Help Farmers. End Hunger on Saturday, March 24, at 9:30 A.M. at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque. Click here for more details One of our speakers is Sister Joan Brown, an NCRLC board member.

And here is a prayer from the NCRLC's Green Ribbon Campaign.

Green Ribbon Prayer
Let us pray to the God
who loves us and calls us.

Give us, O God, the competence to see
clearly and the courage to act forthrightly.
Bless the men and women whom you
have called to a vocation of farming.
Keep us ever mindful of their struggles.

Help us to respect the web of creation and recognize the many
dimensions of stewardship. Show us how to appreciate the diversity of
our regional landscapes, the distinctive integrity of rural life, and the
natural beauty of local cultures.

O God, guide us in this budding solidarity. Help us to go beyond
narrow self-interest. Lead us, give us light and dispel the darkness. We
pray that we will walk with You in humility, engage with others gently,
and seek justice for all. Amen.

Faith Groups Add Voice to Debate on 2007 Farm Bill

Every five years, the Congress debates a piece of legislation that more often than not goes unnoticed by most of the country. This all-encompassing legislation, known as the farm bill, deals with reauthorizing (renewing) our country's policies related to agriculture, nutrition, conservation and trade.

Yes, this legislation is about spending priorities. How do we support the people who put food on our table and the land that produces such food?

But this farm bill is also about moral values. Are we ensuring that everyone in our country and in other countries has access to nutritious and safe food in the long term? Are we promoting long-term access to food by supporting conservation, sustainable agriculture, fair trade policies?

As people of faith, we have the opportunity to participate in the debate through Bread for the World's Offering of Letters, Seeds of Change: Help Farmers. End Hunger

"Perhaps the most powerful way we can serve people in need is with our voices," says Bread for the World's Biblical Basis for this year's Offering of Letters. "We are blessed to be living in a technologically advanced age, and in the most influential and wealthy country in the world. We are further blessed that our country is a participatory democracy where our voices—and our letters—can make a difference. With those blessings comes responsibility."

At the broader level, Bread for the World and eight other Christian denominations and organizations have come together to craft a joint statement on the 2007 Farm Bill. In the statement, the nine organizations/denominations "join together to support policies that promote economic justice...that strengthen rural communities...that foster right relations among nations...that achieve an end to hunger."

With this broad effort, perhaps we can all work together to ensure that the farm bill truly works to end hunger and poverty in our country and overseas.

Religious Working Group on The Farm Bill

From God's initial command to be good stewards of creation to the Prophets' call for justice among governments and nations, people of faith in every age are called together to work for the common good. Inspired by Jesus' command to care for poor and hungry people, we join together to support polices that promote economic justice, strengthen rural communities at home and around the world, care for the land as God's creation, foster right relations among the nations and achieve an end to hunger.

Broad reform of U.S. food and farm policy, including adjustments to commodity payment programs, is important to progress against hunger and poverty in this country and around the world. The curent system should be changed in ways that would strengthen communities in rural America, ensure all Americans an adequate and nutritious diet, provide better and more targeted support for U.S. farm families of modest means, and conserve the land for present and future generations. In addition, such changes are necessary to unlock the ability of small-holder farmers in developing countries, who comprise the majority of the world's hungry people, to improve their livelihoods and escape poverty.

The working group will urge Congress to take the opportunity presented by the reauthorization of the Farm Bill to prioritize policies that reduce hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world. To this end we support the following principles in the 2007 farm bill.

Principles

The 2007 Farm Bill should

Increase investments that combat rural poverty and strengthen rural communities

Strengthen and expand programs that reduce hunger and improve nutrition in the United States

Strengthen and increase investment in policies that promote conservation and good stewardship of the land

Provide transitions for farmers to alternative forms of support that are most equitable and do not distort trade in ways that fuel hunger and poverty

Protect the health and safety of farmworkers

Expand research related to alternative and renewable forms of energy

Improve and expand international food aid in ways that encourage local food security

Bread for the World
Church World Service
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
National Council of Churches
The Episcopal Church
Presbyterian Church (USA), Washington Office
United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries
United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

The 2007 Offering of Letters: Seeds of Change: Help Farmers, End Hunger

The heartland of America. Those "amber waves of grain." The Breadbasket of the World. A field of cotton, white as snow. These are iconic images of the United States, fittingly. Farmers and rural communities have always served and provided for this country and its people.

The Lord's Prayer, at the heart of Christian faith, includes the appeal that no one should go hungry. Sharing daily bread and the abundant life is what Jesus did, and asks us to do. Love for neighbor is as important as love for God.

In 2007, the U.S. Congress is expected to reauthorize (or renew) the farm bill. This piece of legislation is about farms and farmers, but its scope is even broader than that. It touches everyone in this country—everyone who eats, and especially those who struggle to have enough to eat. Even people outside the United States feel its impact. The farm bill includes vital nutrition safety nets that our government provides for those most in need. It is only renewed every five years, so this is a critical opportunity to fight hunger in the United States and around the world.

Across this country, through Bread for the World's 2007 Offering of Letters, people of faith and conscience will be speaking out for important changes in the farm bill. With much-needed improvements, the farm bill can provide better and broader support for U.S. farmers, strengthen communities in rural America, help hungry people in this country afford a sufficient and nutritious diet, and support the efforts of small-scale farmers in developing countries to sell their crops and feed their families—all things that the current farm bill falls short of doing.

If we want fields ripe for harvest, we must first sow the seeds. Let’s get busy sowing. Seeds of Change: Help Farmers. End Hunger.

Click here for more background & information on how to obtain resources

True Advent

My wife Karen was dismayed, almost distraught, when she discovered that all of the shelters and homeless-service providers were going to close all day on Christmas Eve, which happened to fall on a Sunday this year.

The shelters, of course, were giving their employees a well-deserved day off. But this meant that many homeless clients (who go to these shelters for food on Sundays) would have to go hungry for much of the day. This was not right, especially on Christmas Eve. The homeless also need to know that someone cares about them on this special day, said Karen.

"There are many reasons a person may become homeless, and most are occasions of brokenness..." Karen said in Observations of a Wounded Healer, an article she wrote for the January-March 2007 issue of Radical Grace (published by the Center for Action and Contemplation).

So Karen called on a group of friends and some colleagues who serve the homeless to try to put together a couple of opportunities to distribute sandwiches. But the effort snowballed into more than just a sandwich-distribution opportunity. Many people from all walks of life stepped up to help. Not only were sandwiches passed out at 7:30 a.m. There were burritos at 11:00 a.m., and a buffet at local small church from noon to 5:00 p.m., all bridging to a regularly scheduled meal at 5:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve at another meal site.

One cannot help but draw parallels to the account of the multiplication of the fish and loaves in all four of the Gospels (Luke 9:12-17, Mark 8:1-10, John 6:1-15, Matthew 15:32-39).

On that note, I would like to share this Advent prayer, which Liz Mosbo VerHage posted on her blog, Living Theology. Liz was recently one of The ONE Campaign organizers for Bread for the World. The prayer was written for First Convenant Church, Seattle, WA, on December 5, 2006.

An Advent Prayer

In this Advent Season, as we practice waiting for the birth of our Savior, may we remember:
- to wait for God to do the leading, equipping, and calling of each of us to a lifestyle shaped by hospitality, compassion, mercy, and justice;
- to practice hospitality among our own church family, and within our weariness or awkwardness to reach out to the other;
- to show compassion to each other, and within broken and hurting families to be especially gracious and help carry each other’s burdens during the holiday season;
- to show works of mercy to our urban community, through our presence and our prayers, through a softening of our hearts and active ministries;
- to pray for justice in the world, remembering and grieving along with those suffering from violence, hunger, illness, poverty, racism, and despair around the globe;
- to respond to God’s promises in gratitude, reflection, and action, so that when we are called, when we are gifted, we join in praising God’s work and walking along the way with God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Amen

Gifts Unwrapped

In her book Simple Living: The Path to Joy and Freedom, Sister Jose Hobday, a Franciscan, describes a Native American tradition of exchanging gifts unwrapped.

"Instead of allowing paper or a tied-up box to come between the giver and the receiver, a gift is handed over without secrecy," says Sister Jose, who is quoted by Jennifer Swanson of the Simple Living Network, This "flesh-to-flesh connection" provides an enhanced sense of unity."

Snow fell in Albuquerque on Dec. 19 and continued on Dec. 20. It came unwrapped.

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:10-11
(Photo: Carlos Navarro)

Seek Quiet Spaces

As we enter the second week of Advent, I would like to share this wonderful gift...

An Advent prayer by Henri Nouwen

Lord Jesus,
Master of both the light and the darkness,
send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas.
We who have so much to do
seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day.
We who are anxious over many things
look forward to your coming among us.
We who are blessed in so many ways
long for the complete joy of your kingdom.
We whose hearts are heavy
seek the joy of your presence.
We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light.
To you we say, Come Lord Jesus!

An Albuquerque Party for Muhammad Yunus

If you have been involved in the fight against poverty and hunger, you are probably very familiar with the name Mohammad Yunus. He is considered a pioneer in the now-expanding microcredit movement, which provide small loans with very low interest rates to entrepreneurs (especially women) too poor to qualify for credits from commercial banks.

"As a young economics professor at Chittagong University in Bangladesh in 1976, Muhammad Yunus lent $27 out of his own pocket to a group of poor craftsmen in the nearby town of Jobra," said Businessweek magazine. "To boost the impact of that small sum, Yunus volunteered to serve as guarantor on a larger loan from a traditional bank, kindling the idea for a village-based enterprise called the Grameen Project. It never occurred to the professor that his gesture would inspire a whole category of lending and propel him to the top of a powerful financial institution.

Today, Yunus runs Bangladesh's Grameen Bank, a leading advocate for the world's poor that has lent more than $5.1 billion to 5.3 million people.

Yunus' efforts have not gone unnoticed by the rest of the world, which now uses his model to develop microcredit programs. On Dec. 10, Nobel Prize committee will honor Yunus and the Grameen Bank with its Nobel Peace Prize.

Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. The Nobel Prize is an international award administered by the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize. Each prize consists of a medal, personal diploma, and a cash award.

Albuquerque Recognition
Yunus' efforts will also be celebrated in Albuquerque. On Sunday, Dec. 10, our friends from RESULTS (one of our local partners in The ONE Campaign) will commemorate Yunus' Nobel Peace Prize with a party at Two Fools Tavern, 3211 Central (NE) in Nob Hill, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. Snacks will be provided, and atendees may purchase drinks. Everyone is invited to join in the celebration.

RESULTS has been a leading advocate of expansion of microcredits at the global level.

Yunus believes that there is no reason for poverty to exist in our world. "The one message that we are trying to promote all the time, that poverty in the world is an artificial creation. It doesn't belong to human civilization, and we can change that, we can make people come out of poverty and have the real state of affairs," Yunus told the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. "So the only thing we have to do is to redesign our institutions and policies, and there will be no people who will be suffering from poverty. So I would hope that this award will make this message heard many times, and in a kind of forceful way, so that people start believing that we can create a poverty-free world. That's what I would like to do."

Yunus follows another citizen of South Asia in gaining recognition from the Nobel Peace Prize committee for anti-poverty work. In 1998, Professor Amartya Sen, an expert on world poverty, won the Nobel Peace Prize in Economics. Sen has written that fighting poverty should be a national and global priority, particularly in the current era of globalization.

(Note: Above photo comes from Nobel Peace Prize Website)

New Website for New Mexico Hunger Task Force

Rozie Kennedy, coordinator of the New Mexico Task Force to End Hunger, has been working diligently the past few weeks to create a website for the organization. Well, Rozie's work is finally done. (Congratulations!)

Click here to gain access to the website. Please spread the word. (The URL is: http://www.nmhunger.org)

Congratulations Partners!

As a grassroots leader for Bread for the World, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to network with wonderful congregations and organizations. I want to take this opportunity to recognize two churches and one sacred dance group that celebrate milestones in October and November.















Daniel Erdman interacts with sacred clowns at our Bread for the World "A Healing Spirit" worship service in September 2003

Congratulations and Muchas Felicidades to Iglesia Congregacional Unida, which was celebrating its 80th anniversary on November 11-12 with a series of events, including a music workshop by Dr. Irving Cotto on the music emerging from communities of faith in Latin America and Spain. Dr. Cotto is involved with Methodists Associated Representing the Cause of Hispanic Americans (MARCHA). People who attended the workshop had the opportunity to sing in a combined choir during a special service on Sunday afternoon.

The congregation also celebrated the 25th anniversary of Pastor Daniel Erdman's ordination. Daniel, a long-time Bread for the World member, was ordained in the Presbyterian Church USA but the congregation he leads is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

Iglesia Congregacional Unida has twice hosted our ecumenical worship services and has participated in the BFW Offering of Letters the past two years.












Members of the Iglesia Congregacional unida choir sang in our ecumenical worship service "A Cry of Jubilee" in September 1999.

We also offer our heart-felt congratulations to Immanuel Presbyterian Church in the Nob Hill community of Albuquerque. The church planned a grand celebration for its Golden Anniversary on Nov. 18-19 with an organ concert, a special service, a Thanksgiving dinner and cornerstone ceremony (review contents of original cornerstone and place 2006 time capsule in cornerstone niche.

The church is special to Bread for the World members in Albuquerque because this is where we held our service to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Bread for the World.

Rev. William Byron, S.J., one of the founders of Bread for the World, was the keynote speaker at our 30th anniversary celebration "Keep the Promise on Hunger and Health" in Albuquerque during September 2004

We also used the steps of Immanuel Presbyterian Church as a stage to commemorate The ONE Campaign's White Band Day in September 2005.

Finally, we want to congratulate Keri Sutter and the sacred dance company Surgite, which moved into a new space on October 29. The group's new home is at 4300 Silver SE, Suite H, in Albuquerque. Surgite, which was founded in 1985, blessed its new space with song, dance, poems and prayers. The group, which is comprised of several young ladies who perform with Keri, brings the gift of sacred dance to congregations, nursing homes and other settings. Surgite helped us plan a couple of our Bread for the World ecumenical worship services. Photo: Keri Sutter dances during our "Open Hearts, Open Minds" service in September 2002.

That's A Lot of Letters (1,140)!

To the Honorable (Sen.) Pete Domenici, (Sen.) Jeff Bingaman, (Rep.) Heather Wilson, (Rep.) Steve Pearce, (Rep.) Tom Udall:

We write you with a simple message: Poverty focused development assistance helps poor people around the world to overcome hunger, poverty and disease.
Currently we give less than half of one percent of our federal budget to poverty-focused development assistance. I urge you to increase that amount by $5 billion for 2007. This will help move us toward the international commitments our country's leaders have made. We have a monumental opportunity to cut global poverty in half. Let's take it.

Sincerely,
Bread for the World members in New Mexico

We must have sent this message more than one thousand times!
Well, actually it was more like 1,140 times! That's how many letters we generated to our members of Congress from New Mexico as part of this year's Offering of Letters, One Will, One Spirit, Zero Poverty.

A heart-felt THANK YOU to the 16 churches and one school that took time and effort to organize a letter-writing event in New Mexico this year. Click here for full list and breakdown of letters by legislator.

We also had letter-writing events during The CROP Walk, World Food Day and the annual meeting of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America-Rocky Mountain Synod, which was held in Albuquerque this year. ELCA members generated 739 letters to senators from five states! (The letters to Sens. Bingaman and Domenici were counted with our New Mexico total).

Three Cheers! for St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Santa Fe; and Albuquerque Mennonite Church, Church of the Good Shepherd, Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Church and Menaul School in Albuquerque, which had a Bread for the World Offering of Letters for the first time ever.

Most churches scheduled their letter-writing event after the Sunday service or the Saturday and Sunday Mass. Organizers found creative ways to introduce the topic to their constituents....Ann Doyle, Bob and Janet Frank and Virginia Pitts at Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary in Albuquerque scheduled the letter-writing event as part of their social justice committee's Awareness Week in September...The program included a talk by Ann Githinji of Kenya and Maniki Sinandele from South Africa about the Millienium Development Goals ...Emily Thorn at Menaul School in Albuquerque used one of the morning chapel sessions to show a powerpoint presentation to students and faculty...Laverne Kaufman at Peace Lutheran Church in Las Cruces invited Kari Bachman, a nutrition expert at New Mexico State University and a long-time BFW member, to speak to the congregation on letter-writing Sunday...

Beth Kissling at Church of the Good Shephard in Albuquerque set up a "dialogue sermon" between Pastor Sue Gallagher and BFW New Mexico state coordinator Carlos Navarro to talk about the offering of letters...Lydia Pendley at St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Santa Fe generated interest about the offering of letters at her church by inviting ONE Campaign volunteer Peter Vance and Carlos Navarro to speak to a social justice issues forum in February...Mary McClean at La Mesa Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque made sure that One Will, One Spirit, Zero Poverty was the topic for the Minute for Mission on letter-writing Sunday...

Thanks to the efforts of Bob Riley at First Unitarian Church, members of that congregation sent 163 letters to Congress...Letter writers at St. Paul Lutheran Church had their message delivered directly to congressional offices in Washington by Charles Lakeman, who attended Bread for the World's Lobby Day this year...Chris Malano at Aquinas Newman Center Catholic Community in Albuquerque talked visiting members of Catholic campus ministry organizations around New Mexico into participating in the parish's Offering of Letters.

Finally, Donna Detweiler tells us about how one young advocate participated in the Offering of Letters at Albuquerque Mennonite Church in June: "We had fun writing letters around the kitchen table... When 7-year old Mary heard her mom's explanation of what we were doing, she said she thought the federal budget should include money for trains. So she drew a train, signed it with her address and tucked it into the envelope with her mom's letter to Mr. Domenici, whose granddaughter they know..."

I have included pictures of some of this year's Offerings of Letters below and in the next blog post.

Thank you to all who contributed these pictures! (Harlan Halvorson at Peace Lutheran Church in Las Cruces took the photo at the very top).












Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary (Albuquerque) Sept. 21
Had their Offering of Letters during as part of Awareness Week
Photo: Carlos Navarro















Aquinas Newman Center (Albuquerque) April 29-30
Phil Keller, Dena Smith and Emily Thorn
write letters to Rep. Heather Wilson, Sen. Pete
Domenici and Sen. Jeff Bingaman after the Sunday
evening Mass.
Photo: Chris Malano

More Images from 2006 Offering of Letters

Top-Peace Lutheran Church (Las Cruces) April 30 & May 7
Bread for the World member Kari Bachman (right),
a nutrition specialist at New Mexico State University,
was a guest speaker on letter-writing Sunday.
Kari poses with Laverne Kaufman.
Photo: Harlan Halvorson

Bottom-St. John's United Methodist Church (Santa Fe) May 7
Gretchen and Bruce Garnand chat with Sandy Szabat
Photo: Marlita Reddy-Hjelmfelt























Top: All Saints Lutheran Church (Albuquerque) May 14
Janice Larson made her views known to Congress.
Photo: Lucrecia Tippit

Bottom: CROP WALK (Albuquerque) October 15
Ann Sensenig, a member of Albuquerque Mennonite Church,
writes to Sen. Pete Domenici after completing a 4-mile walk for the hungry.
Photo: Carlos Navarro

The Spirituality of Fasting

"The biggest problem facing the world today is not people dying in the streets of Calcutta, and not inflation, but spiritual deprivation. . .this feeling of emptiness associated with feeling separate from God, and from all our sisters and brothers on planet Earth."
--Mother Teresa, 1979 Nobel Peace laureate

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has a wonderful program in place to help people at parishes around the country get in touch with the concept of hunger. Under the program, called Food Fast, participants do not eat for a 24-hour period. The program is designed for youth, but adults could and should participate in this experience too.

One of the goals of this activity is to show solidarity with the 84 million people around the world who are hungry. According to the latest statistics from the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) , the number of hungry at the global level increases by 4 million every year. (We're going in reverse, if we are to meet Goal 1 of The Millenium Development Goals, which is to Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty. The target of cutting hunger in half by 2015 is in jeopardy)

Those of us who live in the western industrialized nations cannot even begin to imagine hunger. (That's not to say that we don't have hungry and poor in our midst, but the magnitude is greater in the poor nations). That's why the CRS Food Fast is so important. It begins to put the youth (and adults) in touch with an iota of what it means to be hungry. The difference is that we know there will be food at the end of the 24-hour period. There is no such certainty for millions around the world.

But we must not look at the Food Fast as a simple act of solidarity. This should be a spiritual action. Pedro Melendez Jr. emphasizes this point in an article entitled When You Fast . "When one is more acutely in tune with God through fasting, God then answers in his compassionate and generous ways," says Melendez. Many authors make reference to passages in Isaiah 58, especially verses 5 though 12, as the example of the spiritual connection between fasting and caring for the poor.

FASTING ACTIVITY AT AQUINAS NEWMAN CENTER
Many communities of faith, food banks and other organizations place a lot of attention on the problems of hunger during the month of November. CRS is making a special push for parishes to do a Food Fast during the month.

In Albuquerque, Jude Fournier, director of religious education at Aquinas Newman Center has planned a Food Fast for Nov. 17-18. Even though the event was put together for the parish, everyone in the community is invited to join in.

Here is the schedule.
November 4-5: Sign up as a fasting participant
November 17-18: Actual Fast begins at 5:00 p.m. on Friday. (You are encouraged to eat a meal before 5:00 p.m.). The only meals you will miss are breakfast and lunch on Saturday, but you may have water and juice as needed.
November 17 (8:00 p.m.): Night Prayer for all those who are fasting. Dominican Chapel (in the back of the courtyard at Newman Center).
November 18: (9:30 A.M.-12:30 P.M.) All fasters are welcome back to Newman Center to take part in a community service project/food drive.
November 18: (4:30 p.m.) Newman Center Mass.

All Anti-Hunger Politics Are Local

All politics are local.

The quote is very familiar. In its purest sense, this concept means mobilizing the grassroots. Ordinary people come together to support an action that will help their local community or the global community.

Rozie Kennedy, the Coordinator of the New Mexico Task Force to End Hunger, did some "grassroots" organizing among a constituency that is the best example of the concept of "local." I'm referring to the 103 mayors of New Mexico communities.

Rozie had a very simple request for the mayors: Please issue a proclamation in support of World Food Day. One-third of the mayors took the time to draw up a proclamation, which were displayed at our World Food Day commemoration in Albuquerque on Monday Oct. 16.

"The response was enthusiastic, with several Mayors responding and expressing their support of World Food Day," said Rozie. "Thirty-three municipalities were able to issue proclamations for World Food Day, and a few more said they'd miss the deadline but were still supportive." Mayors representing cities of all sizes, from Las Cruces, Santa Fe, and Rio Rancho to Gallup and Jal, supported the effort.

In addition to asking the mayors to show support of world hunger relief, they were urged to invite their constituents to "learn more about the issues and to join in working toward ending hunger and food insecurity which affect millions of people every day."

There is a long-term benefit from the effort to bring New Mexico's mayors together on this issue. "More than a feel-good stunt, the call for Mayoral proclamations is part of the New Mexico Task Force to End Hunger's strategic efforts to begin connecting hunger-relief organizations statewide," said Rozie.

As part of the campaign to rally communities in New Mexico to join together in the fight against hunger, Rozie plans to launch a website on Thanksgiving weekend. (The url will be www.nmhunger.org) We will post the appropriate links once the website is up and going.

"Including reports, news and action items, public assistance information, and a statewide listserv, the website will increase statewide connections and assist in disseminating information related to hunger in New Mexico," said Rozie.

Along with the municipal proclamations, our World Food Day planning committee secured a proclamation from Gov. Bill Richardson.

The governor's proclamation (pictured at the top) was read by Katie Falls, deputy director of the New Mexico Human Services Department (pictured above).

Welcome Matt Ching!

Many of us are used to calling the office in Pasadena, Ca., to talk to our regional organizer.

Starting in October, we will be calling Portland instead. (Most of us communicate with our organizer by e-mail, so we probably won't be "calling" that often).

And with the change to a new location comes a new regional organizer.

Welcome Matt Ching!

He replaces Zelinda Welch, who left in June to enter into a graduate program at the University of Southern California.

Matt, who comes to us from Sojourners and Call to Renewal, will be starting in Portland on Monday, October 9. (If you went to the National Gathering in 2005, you might remember that Bread for the World and Call to Renewal (CTR) co-sponsored the national gathering. Matt was the CTR contact person).

Matt is also a graduate of the Congressional Hunger Center's National Fellows Program, which is named after the late Rep. Bill Emerson of Missouri.

Matt will be sharing the office with our grassroots media organizer Shawnda Eibl. His e-mail address is: mching@bread.org

Here's the address and the phone number for the Western Region: 0245 SW Bancroft Street, Suite B Portland, OR 97239 301-960-4913

Matt, welcome to the western region!