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As I mentioned last week, in May we will have an opportunity to take part in Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters. In my article I explained the mechanism and purpose of the Offering. As a quick recap, we write letters (handwritten, preferably) to our Member of Congress and Senators, urging them to act on a particular initiative to combat hunger, then we gather the letters, bless them, and offer them to God as an act of worship. Today I will tell you about this year’s “ask.”

The Farm Bill, the massive piece of legislation that sets agricultural and nutritional priorities for the federal government, is arguably the most important legislation for the fight against hunger in the United States, and it has serious implications for that fight in the international setting as well. Every five years the Farm Bill has to be reauthorized. This is the year for that to happen. That means it’s the perfect time to raise our voices to ensure that adequate funding is maintained or increased for important nutrition programs and international food aid initiatives.

Bread for the World is focusing on three areas of concern in this year’s Farm Bill: nutrition, equity, and sustainability. The nutrition priority seeks to ensure that people in the US and around the world have nutritious foods to eat. The equity area seeks to make food programs more accessible to minority communities, Tribal groups, and other marginalized populations. Sustainability means: 1) ensuring that agricultural productivity and access to food can survive the growing threats posed by the climate crisis; and 2) seeking to eliminate food waste.

It’s easy to get deep in the weeds when discussing any government program, and the “alphabet soup” of acronyms in the Farm Bill can make your head spin. But if you consider yourself a policy wonk and would like to do more research on Bread’s Farm Bill priorities, follow this link, and then click on any of the links listed on the Resources page. Alternatively, you can wait for subsequent Thursday emails, in which I will dig a little deeper into the areas of Nutrition, Equity, and Sustainability. I promise to keep it as simple and straightforward as I can.

Remember these dates:

  • Sunday, May 7, following worship — educational program and letter writing

  • Wednesday, May 10, 7:00 pm — educational program and letter writing

  • Sunday, May 14 — presentation of the letters in worship

The Church in Society committee (Marianne Lubenow, Marti Smith, and Kathy Herrmann) is spearheading this effort. If you feel moved to get involved in some way, we would welcome your participation; contact any member of the committee for more information. If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to me (pastor@communityucc.net, 614.633.9319).

Grace and peace,
bob

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