Bread for the World is a United Methodist Church Conference approved, nationwide citizens movement that for over 25 years has successfully sought justice for the world's hungry people by lobbying our nation's decision makers. There is great power for good in this united ecumenical action. "Bread for the World's Offering of Letters provides the United Methodist Church in the US with a vehicle to speak in a united voice of faith to the pressing needs of our sisters and brothers ..." according to Wendy Whiteside, Executive Secretary of Program Management, United Methodist Committee on Relief.

2007

Our 2007 Bread for the World Covenant Church Offering of Letters will take place on Sunday, May 20. Please drop by the tables in Fellowship Hall to support this important work.

2006

The 2006 Bread for the World Covenant Church Offering of Letters.

On Sunday, May 14 we made our tenth Bread for the World Offering of Letters. This year’s theme was “One Spirit – One Will – Zero Poverty.” Our 2006 Offering campaign urged Congress to significantly increase poverty-focused development assistance in fiscal year 2007 and work towards devoting an additional one percent of the federal budget by 2010. We have a monumental opportunity in the coming decade to cut global poverty in half. Our letters encouraged Congress not to waste this opportunity.

2005

The 2005 Bread for the World Covenant Church Offering of Letters.

On Sunday, May 15, we made our ninth Bread for the World (BFW) offering of letters. Members of our congregation and the youth of our church signed 1,968 letters. As an offering to God, they were placed on the altar with a prayer that they may be transformed into instruments of God's good news for hungry and poor people. We are but one of over 4,000 churches nationally (17 in the metro area) who make an offering of letters.

This year’s theme was “Make Hunger History.” Our theme "make hunger history" is a first recommendation to the federal government in A Blueprint to End Hunger: “Live up to the official U.S. commitment to cut hunger and food insecurity in half by 2010, and commit to ending both by 2015.” Today the U.S. government has less than five years to fulfill its promise and reduce hunger by as many as 36 million at-risk people.

Last year all but one member of Congress who represent the State of Michigan voted for the Bread for the World legislation. We pray that all Michigan members of Congress will vote "yes" this year.

Thank you for what you have done in the past, for what you did this year, and for what you will do in the future to support the world's hungry people.

2004

The 2004 Bread for the World Covenant Church Offering of Letters.

The theme of our eighth Bread for the World offering of letters was "Keep the Promise on Hunger and Health." Our 2004 campaign was simple: both the President and Congress made promises in 2003 about future funding for the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and HIV/AIDS, so we want to assure those promises are kept. Recent actions of Congress on MCA and HIV/AIDS are hugely significant, but have fallen short of the $5 billion per year promised without making any cuts to ongoing development and humanitarian programs. These promises were made to some of the poorest people on earth. Their lives depend on these programs.

The Congressional process goes on all year long. It has basically three steps: (1) The national office of Bread for the World works with congressional committees all year long to develop the bipartisan legislation to be proposed. (2) Before the legislation is introduced into House and Senate committees, the letter-writing campaign attempts to obtain support from all members of Congress, asking as many as possible to become bipartisan sponsors and co-sponsors. (3) Once the bills pass the House and Senate and are enacted into law, the effort becomes one of obtaining budgetary approval for the amount of funding proposed.

First United Methodist Church of Birmingham's support asks our members to consider becoming members of Bread for the World, to take a few minutes of their time once a year to sign letters to the congressional members representing our church, and to become as informed as possible concerning hunger in this nation and the world. Membership in Bread for the World will provide monthly information concerning the progress of the program to reduce hunger by one-half by 2015.

Our church has been a Bread for the World Covenant Church since 1997. A history of our participation is given below. For further information about Bread for the World activities within our church, contact Norris Lee, Harold Stanton, or the church office. For details on the activities of the national movement, see the Bread for the World www.bread.org.

2003

Our seventh offering of letters was Rise to the Challenge: End World Hunger.

The nations of the world have known since 1966 that there is sufficient food in the world to feed all the hungry people if governments have the will. Yet, almost 37 years later, the goal of eliminating hunger within 15 years has not happened. The cause of hunger is poverty. The cause of poverty is lack of education, gender inequality, unempowered women, high child mortality, poor maternal health, rampant AIDS, malaria and other diseases, unstable environment; specifically the lack of safe drinking water, plus the lack of effective global partnerships.

In March 2002, world leaders gathered at a United Nations Conference in Monterey, Mexico. Funding commitments were sought from both rich and poor nations to reach a set of internationally agreed upon targets for cutting in half extreme hunger and poverty and for improving health and education in developing countries by 2015. The U. S. and 188 other nations agreed to these Millennium Development goals.

President Bush has announced that the U. S. would significantly increase development assistance to poor countries that demonstrate a commitment to good governance, investment in people, and sound economic policies. He further said that the increased assistance would go to a new Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) to fund initiatives that improve the lives of people in developing countries.

Recently, visits were made to Washington to visit Senators Levin and Stabenow plus Representative Knollenberg. We were greatly encouraged by our visits and left with the feeling that we have their support.

The outcome now depends upon the action of our legislators. What can we do to help? Here is what we heard in Washington in June: From Senator Levin's aide (Jackie Parker): My sense is that if BFW does not push, it won't happen; if you don't raise your voices, it won't happen. Increase your organizations numbers. Don't be afraid to use member power to demand.

From Senator Stabenaw's aide (Kim Love): Keep the letters coming. Tell us what your ideas are concerning legislation. It helps when we receive Bread for the World letters from state constituents; including the over 700 we received this year.

From Representative Knollenberg's (Craig Albright): Keep the letters coming. Many people think that it doesn't do any good to write Congress. It's the main thing that does good. We need your letters. We want your letters.

We delivered 1,727 letters to Congress in support of this legislation. These letters, when combined with those of a broad based coalition of religious, humanitarian and development organizations, resulted in over 150,000 letters to Congress. These letters, plus the bi-partisan effort in Congress working with the administration, helped gain two important things: funding for the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and AIDS, and significant improvements in the MCA. Last year the combined effort won the largest increase in poverty-focused development assistance in nearly 20 years. Our letters made a difference!

Since 1997, our church has sent 9,832 letters to Congress in support of Bread for the World initiatives.

2002

Our sixth offering of letters was Working from Poverty to Promise. This campaign sought to strengthen and improve Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), commonly known as welfare, by making poverty reduction a stated goal, expanding participants' access to education and training, easing time limits for working families, and increasing program funding. All provisions from the Working from Poverty to Promise Act were included in either the House or Senate bills, but Congress did not pass a final bill in 2002 and will need to revisit TANF in 2003. The original TANF legislation was passed in 1965 and expired in September of 2002. The program has been extended by Congress several times. The current effort is to secure either the passage of the final bill or the temporary extension of benefits until at least December 2003.

We sent a total of 1,693 letters to our Senators and Representatives in support of this legislation. Since 1997, when we sent 763 letters, we have now sent a total of 8,096 letters.

We should be proud of the fact that more letters were sent to congress from the Metro Detroit area than from any other area in the country; our church sent more letters than any other church in the Metro Detroit area. Efforts of church members in Michigan were successful when every Michigan Senator and Representative voted in favor of this legislation.

2001

Our fifth Bread for the World Offering of Letters was for "Africa: Hunger to Harvest." Several years ago in Cologne, Germany, there was a meeting of the G-8 nations (the 8 economically strongest nations in the world). At this meeting, an agreement was signed showing each nation's share of costs to cut hunger in half by the year 2015. Bread for the World's offering asks Congress to provide the United States' 2001 share of that agreement - $1 billion. It would cost each American only one cent per day, or $3.65 per year. That's very little when we realize this U.S. share will be a part of helping over 600 million desperate Africans. The 2001 offering asked Congress for an additional $1 billion above existing foreign assistance for sub-Saharan Africa to be used for effective poverty-focused development. The legislation would continue the progress of transforming Africa's growth and prosperity for the sub-Saharan's 48 countries having a combined population of over 600 million.

A total of 1,721 letters were received and have been hand-carried to Representatives Levin and Knollenberg and Senators Levin and Stabenow. The number of letters from First Church has steadily increased in each of our five years of participation (from 763 in 1997).

The Hunger to Harvest resolution (H. Con. Res. 102) passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 400 to 9 in December 2001. The Hunger to Harvest Resolution proposes increased poverty-focused aid to Africa to strengthen agriculture, health, education, small business development and debt relief. The bill proposal also requires President Bush to report back to Congress with five- and ten-year plans for increasing development assistance and reducing hunger in Africa. A virtually identical resolution passed the Senate in July 2001. Every House member from our region voted in favor of the Resolution, except one member who was not present for the vote. None of the nine members who voted against the Resolution was from our region.

2000

Our fourth Bread for the World Offering of Letters was for "A Fair Share - Working to End Hunger." In the U.S., 1 in 10 households cannot afford food for their families. This legislation would provide the food these families need. Thirty-one million people, including more than 12 million children, live in these homes. Nationally, the legislation would raise about 11.8 million children above poverty; in Michigan, it would affect about 400,000 people of which 50 percent are working women.

For our 2000 Bread for the World Offering of Letters, over 300 Birmingham First members signed 1,249 Offering Letters which were submitted to Congress. Our letters were part of a successful nationwide offering of over 100,000 letters which resulted in year 2000 appropriations of $485 million to provide sustainable development programs for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The Detroit Area of Bread for the World sent more letters than any other area of the country; our church produced more letters than any other local church.

1999

Our third Bread for the World (BFW) Offering of Letters was for "Proclaim Jubilee: Break the Chains of Debt." - to enact the biblical principle of Jubilee and relieve the enormous debt burden that is adding to the hunger, sickness, and illiteracy of the world's poorest countries. Over 40 developing nations have crushing debt owed to other nations. One of these countries is Tanzania, where 40 percent of the population dies before age 35 and where 9 times more is spent on debt repayment than is spent on health care.

Crushing debt is when in sub-Saharan Africa, governments owe foreign creditors an average of almost $400 for every man, woman and child - more than most Africans make in an entire year. That's a lot. The BFW legislation is estimated to cost each man, woman and child in the United States only $1.33 each year for the next three years. That's very little. Our understanding and support of the bipartisan Break the Chains of Debt Legislation can do much to improve the ability of the world's poorest nations to "get back on their feet."

Over 1000 BFW Covenant Churches supported the 1999 legislative effort asking Congress, in concert with other creditor nations, to forgive our share of the debt in a way that channels the benefits to the poorest people. BFW recognizes that hunger is a moral issue and that debt relief is hunger relief.

Our 1999 Offering Of Letters produced a final count of 1,559 letters to our Congressmen on behalf of hungry people in 48 highly indebted nations. Our letters were a part of a successful nationwide offering of over 100,000 letters which helped convince federal officials to forgive the crushing debt of qualified, heavily indebted nations. The forgiven debt allowed the interest payments to be directed to feeding, education, and healing their suffering citizens.

1998

There is a difference between disaster response and disaster development. Bags and bags of grain! Disaster responses have appeal because they require immediate action, and we are action-oriented. Unfortunately, disaster response and relief efforts offer little opportunity to transform lives. Development helps to transform lives. Effective relief gets people back to where they were before the disaster; development brings them further and offers hope for an improved future.

The 1998 Offering of Letters was in support for the bipartisan "Africa: Seeds of Hope" legislation (HB 3636). This legislation was about hunger disaster and development. Because most African farms are small (and in some countries, 80 percent of the food is produced by women), the 1998 legislative effort focussed on the needs of Africans in rural communities. Our May 31 Offering of Letters produced 1,111 letters to our Congressmen on behalf of hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa - a very successful second letter offering.

These letters helped convince federal officials to redirect U.S. resources toward small-scale farmers and struggling rural communities in Africa. Also established was a self-replenishing emergency grain reserve for a faster, more cost-effective food aid response to humanitarian crises throughout the world.

1997

In 1997, our church became a Bread for the World Covenant Church and participated in our first "Offering of Letters". Our offering was combined with over 100,000 letters from churches nationwide and helped win $1.7 billion in increased funding for nutritional programs. This money kept more than 400,000 people from losing WIC (women, infants, and children aid) or food stamps.