Love Your Neighbor

We invite you to learn more about hunger and its impacts in the U.S. and globally at bread.org/write-congress, then please act by sending email messages to your elected officials.  Sample messages are provided in the links below to help get you started.   [Scroll down for the Temple Talk delivered by Paul Manganiello during our April 26, 2020 Virtual Worship Service.]

1.  Click here to customize and send an email urging your elected officials to help end child malnutrition internationally. 
2. Click here to customize and send an email urging your elected officials to end summer hunger.
3. Click here to customize and send an email to urge your elected officials to respond to COVID-19 and support vulnerable populations. Learn more about COVID-19 and Hunger here.

Text delivered by Paul Manganiello during virtual worship service on Sunday, April 26, 2020, the Third Sunday of Easter:

Good morning. Hope you are all doing well. My name is Paul Manganiello, a member of OSLC’s Social Ministry Committee. This is our 2020 “virtual” annual Bread for the World, Offering of Letters.

Bread will focus on childhood nutrition. In addition to continuing our advocacy work to improve global nutrition, we will also be paying attention to those experiencing hunger in the United States.

More than 820 million people in the world were food insecure in 2018, which causes many of the world’s children to suffer from malnutrition roughly 20 percent, or 150 million are not growing as they should, and malnutrition also threaten their very lives 7 percent—or roughly 50 million children under the age of 5.

The United Nation’s intervention strategy is aimed at the all-important 1,000 days, from the beginning of a woman’s pregnancy through to her child’s second birthday. This time frame is critical for a child’s health and future well being. Malnutrition before the second birthday can be responsible for irreversible damage to their rapidly growing bodies and minds.

In the US, 1 in 7 children live in food-insecure homes. Children who suffer food insecurity have more headaches, stomachaches, anemia, ear infections, asthma, and colds than children from equally poor families who don’t experience food insecurity. Children with consistently nutritious diets are physically and emotionally healthier, and they do better in school and later in life overall.

As an example, in Shaw, Mississippi, Kendra Whitehead, drops her four daughters off at Delta Hands for Hope summer camp. The nonprofit, housed in a storefront across from a scenic park, is a summer meals site for children facing hunger. Summer is the hungriest time of the year for children living in food-insecure households because they do not have access to school meals. Of the roughly 22 million children who receive meals during the school year, only about 4 million benefit from nutritious summer programs—this leaves millions of children without adequate nutrition. Food programs—such as summer meals and the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT), are available.  They were piloted several years ago, and over time, the number of states participating and children served has increased. The program has proven effective and should be implemented nationwide.

By investing in domestic and international nutrition programs, we can help children get off to a good start and make the future better not only for them, but for all of us.

This year, we are asking that you not handwrite the letter to be mailed, but to do it electronically by going to the websites that will be provided and personalizing the sample letter given. It is extremely easy and effective. Click on the links provided.

We are also asking that you urge your legislators to increase funding for SNAP benefits (formerly food stamps) in response to the COVID 19 pandemic. More information, including the SNAP fact sheet and the online letter can be found at the link providered.

We ask you to educate yourselves about these issues with the Bread resources; pray about these issues; and act on these issues. Thank you for considering our request.