St. Thomas Aquinas Parish is part of Bread for the World video

St. Thomas Aquinas parishioner Katie Quigley of Indianapolis writes a letter to Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh asking for his support of global hunger relief legislation during Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters on Oct. 26 at the Indianapolis North Deanery church. St. Thomas Aquinas parishioners and members of several Protestant Churches in Indianapolis will be featured in the organization’s 2009 educational video, which will be distributed to thousands of churches in the U.S., sent to every member of Congress and posted on Bread for the World’s Web site. (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

Starving people in Zimbabwe are eating insects to try to survive a famine in their South African homeland that has endangered more than 5.1 million people.

Babies, children and adults in remote, mountainous regions of Haiti and in other developing countries are dying from malnutrition every day in the wake of powerful storms or long droughts that destroyed meager crops.

Heartbreaking photographs and news stories with datelines around the world and even throughout the United States capture the shocking images of people of all ages who go to sleep hungry every night.

Bread for the World, based in Washington, D.C., mobilizes Catholics, Protestants and people from other faith traditions to help the poor by working to end malnutrition and starvation with educational programs and legislative lobbying efforts as well as supporting the global hunger relief projects of Catholic Relief Services and other aid groups.

The Christian nonprofit organization’s slogan is “Have faith. End hunger.”

St. Thomas Aquinas parishioners in Indianapolis are among Hoosier Catholics who participate in Bread for the World’s annual Offering of Letters and other advocacy campaigns to lobby legislators on behalf of the hungry.

Because of their longtime commitment to work to end hunger, St. Thomas Aquinas parishioners will be featured in Bread for the World’s 2009 educational video, which will be distributed to thousands of churches in the U.S., sent to every member of Congress and posted on the organization’s Web site.

A production crew from New Media Mill of Washington, D.C., filmed Father Steven Schwab, pastor, and parishioners during Mass and an afternoon prayer service on Oct. 26 for the Offering of Letters with Protestants from area faith communities who gathered at the Indianapolis North Deanery church.

Bread for the World’s Web site explains that the Scriptures call Christians to be advocates for “the least among us” with more than 2,000 verses in the New Testament alone that refer to hunger and poverty.

In his reflection for the videotaped prayer service, Father Schwab noted that, “In the Scriptures, hunger is everyone’s problem.”

Elected officials on the local, state and federal levels listen to “the hopes and demands of their constituents, especially when those hopes and demands are expressed in great numbers,” he said. “… Working through and with our elected representatives is central to living the Gospel call to reduce and someday eliminate hunger.”

That is the inspiration for Bread for the World’s lobbying campaign, which asks concerned people to send hand-written letters to their U.S. senators and representatives to request support for legislation that provides food for the poor.

Bread for the World advisory board president Dave Miner, a member of Fairview Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, said the hunger relief organization brings together 40 denominations and 60,000 members across the country to help save the lives of starving people.

“When people see the need, they want to respond to that need,” Miner said. “The first thing that they think of is the logical response to collect cans of food or write a check, for example, to Catholic Relief Services. Those are important direct services, and so is changing government policy [by lobbying for legislation that better feeds the hungry].”

Miner said he believes that “God hears the cries of the poor” and wants people to hear their cries as well.

“We have the wonderful advantage of living in a democracy where we get to have some influence over what our legislators do,” he said. “That’s a gift. It’s important that the needs of the hungry be represented, and that won’t happen unless we speak up for them.”

Hand-written letters about world hunger are powerful tools, Miner said, that get the attention of senators and representatives to remind them of the voiceless people who need help.

“Global Development: Charting a New Course,” the organization’s 2009 report on the state of world hunger, points out that “the world is facing a hunger challenge unlike anything it has seen in the past 50 years.”

The annual report released on Nov. 24 calls for “elevating global development and poverty reduction as specific goals of U.S. foreign policy.”

Catholic Charities USA and the Catholic Health Association are among the report sponsors.

“Bread for the World is a collective, Christian voice urging our nation’s decision-makers to end hunger at home and abroad,” explained Shawnda Hines, media associate. “Bread for the World members believe that by speaking out we can make a difference for our neighbors, whether they are in our backyard or halfway across the world. By changing policies, programs and conditions that allow hunger and poverty to persist, we provide help and opportunities far beyond the communities in which we live.”

Hines said “the Bread for the World network in Indianapolis and Indiana is incredibly organized … as Christians and citizen advocates who are passionate about ending hunger.”

Direct services are so important, she said, and go hand in hand with advocacy.

“If we’re going to fight hunger in this country and abroad, it’s going to take local communities lobbying the federal government,” Hines said. “The group in Indianapolis has embodied that effort.

“In addition to praying for people who don’t have enough food to eat, pray that those of us who are full will be hungry for justice,” Hines said. “I find that really meaningful on Thanksgiving.”

(For more information on Bread for the World and the annual Offering of Letters, log on to the organization’s Web site at www.bread.org or the Hoosier chapters’ Web site at www.breadindiana.org.) †