2001
Bread for the World members succeeded in getting both houses of Congress to pass the “Hunger to Harvest” resolution—putting themselves on record as supporting increases for effective programs that help in sub-Saharan Africa. An additional $593 million for these types of initiatives allowed countries like Mozambique to begin projects for agriculture, clean water, health and education.
2002
Bread for the World members sought to strengthen and improve Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) to help poor people and working families in the United States move out of poverty. Congress was seeking to change TANF in ways that would make it more difficult for families struggling to lift themselves out of poverty. Bread members were able to block these harmful changes until 2006, when Congress included some of the changes in a budget bill.
2003
Bread for the World members helped establish the Millennium Challenge Account, a new U.S. assistance program aimed at reducing poverty and fighting corruption in the world’s poorest nations. Since then, countries as diverse as Madagascar and Mongolia have signed compacts with the United States to implement comprehensive plans to address the root causes of poverty in their countries. We also helped win the largest increase in poverty-focused development assistance in 20 years.
2004
Bread for the World members won more than $1 billion in additional funding for the Millennium Challenge Account and other programs to fight disease and poverty in poor countries. This funding has helped to lower the infant mortality rate in the developing world.
2005
Bread for the World members stopped Congress from cutting nutrition assistance to hundreds of thousands of hard-working people and their children. They also wrote letters on behalf of the Hunger-Free Communities Act, which Congress passed as part of the 2008 farm bill. The act requires the next administration to develop a plan for cutting hunger in the United States and strengthens community anti-hunger coalitions across the nation.
2006
Bread for the World members continued their winning record of significant increases in funding for programs that address the causes of poverty in developing nations. The $1.4 billion increase in 2006 went largely to addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Now that millions more people are receiving life-saving medications, more people in the working years of their lives are again able to produce food, care for their children, and contribute in their communities.
2007
This offering sought to win broad reform in the U.S. farm bill—making commodity programs into a more equitable safety net for our nation’s farmers, and shifting additional resources into nutrition, conservation, and rural development programs. Though commodity payment programs were not substantially reformed, the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 did include the largest-ever funding increase for food stamps and food banks—an additional $10 billion over 10 years.
2008
Bread for the World pushed for more and better international development assistance. Our efforts helped win a supplemental appropriation of $1.8 billion to respond to the global hunger crisis. Election-year politics stalled efforts to pass the Global Poverty Act. But having one of the bill’s lead sponsors, Barack Obama, now as president should help in our 2009 efforts to better coordinate assistance and raise the profile of development.
2009
The outcome depends on you!
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