Here is an interview that David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World did with Spotlight on Poverty on the current budget and its effect on poor people here and abroad. To watch the interview click here.
This is an important issue; the proposed budget cuts are targeting those who are most vulnerable.
Hungry People Overseas Hit Hardest by Proposed Cuts
May 2011
The most alarming provisions of H.R. 1, the House spending bill discussed in this issue’s front-page story, affect some of the poorest people in the world. These provisions would make drastic cuts to international humanitarian and development assistance programs, such as emergency food aid, health (including HIV treatment), child survival, clean water, and sustainable agriculture.
Food aid and the McGovern-Dole program, which provides school lunches to children from poor families, would face the largest cuts: 46 percent. Hundreds of millions of dollars would be stripped from each of several other accounts, including Development Assistance, PEPFAR, Global Health and Child Survival, and the Millennium Challenge Account.
via Hungry People Overseas Hit Hardest by Proposed Cuts – Bread for the World: Have Faith. End Hunger..
See also this pdf file from Bread for the World: The US Budget: Myths and Realities.
Global food prices rose to a fresh high in December, according to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).
Its Food Price Index went above the previous record of 2008 that saw prices spark riots in several countries.
Soaring sugar, cereal and oil prices had driven the rise, the report said.
This will require both increasing nutrition and income support program participation under existing
essential strategies for ending childhood hunger by 2015, summarized here and explained in detail
Restore economic growth and create jobs with better wages for lower-income workers.
Raise the incomes of the lowest-income families.
Strengthen the SNAP/Food Stamp Program.
Strengthen the Child Nutrition Programs.
Engage the entire federal government in ending childhood hunger.
Work with states, localities and nonprofits to expand and improve participation in federal nutrition programs.
later in this paper: The steps are:
Make sure all families have convenient access to reasonably priced, healthy food.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The use of food stamps has increased dramatically in the U.S., as the federal government ramps up basic assistance to meet the demands of an increasingly desperate population.
The number of food stamp recipients increased 16% over last year. This means that 14% of the population is now living on food stamps. That’s about 43 million people, or about one out of every seven Americans
via Food stamp use spikes: One in seven rely on them – Dec. 21, 2010.
BUDGET-CUTTING CONSEQUENCES
The budget-cutting has begun, and governments around the world are paying attention to the sharp-knives in Congress. So when the House of Representatives released a draft Continuing Resolution this week with only $100 million in fiscal year 2011 allocated to the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) – a severe reduction from President Obama’s request for $408 million – a host of humanitarian organizations were quick to pen a letter to the White House sounding a stern warning about the consequences of the cut
via Roger Thurow – Outrage and Inspire – “BUDGET-CUTTING CONSEQUENCES” – Global Food for Thought.
Just two years ago, Marie-Ange Lory lived in a shack that people mistook for an animal coop. The roof leaked so badly during rainfalls that she and her three kids had to cover their heads with plastic bags.
Now she’s flourishing. With the help of Fonkoze, a microfinance organization that receives support from the U.S. government and U.S. churches—many of them Bread partners—Marie-Ange is beginning her own business.
At the heart of our efforts is a straightforward concept: supporting nations to grow their own food to feed their own people. The opportunities are great. Almost 80 percent of the nearly $1 billion of food WFP buys each year comes from developing countries (See an interactive map of where WFP buys food here). In the past three years alone, we have purchased more than $500 million worth of food from East Africa, a place that is sadly better known for its droughts than its surpluses. Can you imagine if a substantial amount of this money was going into the pockets of small-scale farmers working on an acre or so of land?
From Food for the Hungry. This is an interactive PowerPoint program that lets you experience the kinds of life and death decisions that are made by people around the world who are living in poverty. Please go to Hungry Decisions to dowmload this resource to understand hunger and poverty.
Hunger’s real causes World population is not the reason for it—contrary to what some might believe. The real reason nearly one billion of the planet’s 6.7 billion people are undernourished is because of food-distribution problems, natural disasters, government policies, civil unrest, inequitable trade policies, lack of knowledge and greed.
Read more from the pdf file on Hunger at Hunger Resources.
The child nutrition bill that President Obama signed this morning includes an important new option that will allow thousands of schools in high-poverty areas to focus on feeding children rather than processing paperwork. This is a terrific opportunity for states to serve more low-income children through the school meals program.
Known as “community eligibility,” the option will allow schools or school districts where the vast majority of the students are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price meals to serve free breakfasts and lunches to all children. Families won’t have to complete applications providing detailed information on their income. And schools won’t have to process those applications or have a cashier figure out whether to provide a free or reduced-price meal every time a child goes through the lunch line.
With unemployment high and millions of families in need, for the first time since 1996 when President Clinton and Congress created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant as part of welfare reform, no additional TANF funds are available from the federal government to help states respond to the large increases in the number of impoverished families as a result of a recession.
Consequently, with the need for emergency and temporary assistance (including help finding work) at their highest levels in decades, more low-income parents will go without jobs, more homeless families will go without shelter, fewer low-wage workers will receive help with child care expenses, and fewer families involved with the child welfare system will receive preventive services.
via Federal TANF Funding Shrinking While Need Remains High — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Click below you will probably be surprised
Bread for the World Applauds Administration’s Commitment to Reforming Foreign Policy
Today the U.S. State Department released the first-ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), “Leading through Civilian Power.” Aimed at setting a sweeping reform agenda for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the QDDR takes a comprehensive look at the role of U.S. foreign aid and global development initiatives in a world with increased needs, threats, and opportuniti
As more of us indulge our passion for local, organic delicacies, a growing number of Americans don’t have enough nutritious food to eat. How we can bridge the gap.
Across Pennsylvania, with 12.5 percent of people living in poverty, state and federal support for food banks is waning. That has forced the Greater Pittsburgh food bank to dip into reserves to buy food. Next year, it will spend $1.1 million more on food than it did in 2006.
via Food pantries face tall task with more residents struggling – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak had second thoughts yesterday about buying a cup of coffee, because it would have eaten up one-third of her daily food allowance.
Through the end of this week, Rudiak said she will be spending under $7 a day on food, the same allotment a food stamp recipient receives, to highlight cuts in the federal program.
via City councilwoman cuts her diet to food stamp level – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Access to food, and by inference food distribution, is at least as crucial to alleviating poverty and reducing hunger as the ability to increase worldwide food production. The dramatic coexistence of the over-consumption of food in some parts of the world and malnutrition in others is a powerful reminder of this. The current global food regime has exposed these contrasts more starkly than ever.
via Malfunctioning Markets – STWR – Share The World’s Resources.
925 million in chronic hunger worldwide 14th September 2010 – Food and Agiculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
FAO and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today said that the number of hungry people in the world remains unacceptably high despite expected recent gains that have pushed the figure below 1 billion.
The new estimate of the number of people who will suffer chronic hunger this year is 925 million — 98 million down from 1.023 billion in 2009.
“But with a child dying every six seconds because of undernourishment related problems, hunger remains the world’s largest tragedy and scandal,” said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. “This is absolutely unacceptable.”
via The Prospects for Ending Hunger: New Figures, Same Problems – STWR – Share The World’s Resources.
The real reason for the large and rapid increase in wheat price lay in banks trading in exchanges in Chicago, US. Away from the wildfires of Russia, hot money flooded into the wheat markets in July 2010, betting on an increase in prices. Dan Basse of AgResource Co. in Chicago said historically low US interest rates were helping to fuel massive speculation in wheat contracts as financial institutions ‘look for investable markets’ amid concerns that Western economies might suffer a double-dip recession in the coming months.
The ugly face of banks and hedge funds speculating on the price of food had raised its head once again.
My comments: Trading and speculating in food is nothing short of sinful. Greed at its worst. Followers of Christ must urge that the US and other nations ban speculation in food. Please read the full article at
via Bank and Hedge Fund Speculation Causes Food Prices to Soar – STWR – Share The World’s Resources.
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