1. [Instructions to the Offering of Letters event organizer or presenter:
This PowerPoint presentation is one of several tools in the Offering of Letters toolkit provided to help you introduce the 2018 Offering of Letters campaign to your church, campus, or group. Use this presentation to support the way YOU want to present Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters. Feel free to add or remove slides as you like. Also, remember Bread is here to help. As you plan your Offering of Letters, feel free to reach out to your regional organizer for additional tips, updates on legislation relating to the campaign, and support.
Talking points for the presentation are provided in the notes section with each slide—suggestions for what to say while that slide is projected on the screen are in bold.. Instructions to you, which should not be read aloud, are in brackets in the notes section.
Note that slides 2 through 4 are an optional introduction to Bread for the World and the grassroots advocacy it does. If the participants in your forum already know about Bread or you have limited time, you can skip the next three slides and go directly to slide 5 to discuss the Offering of Letters.
Be sure to review this PowerPoint file—both the slides and the notes—before delivering your presentation. Rehearse your spoken part, using the notes with each slide, as necessary. You may want to print out the slides and notes (an option in the print menu of PowerPoint) so you have a document to refer to as only the slide content (and not the notes) will be shown to your audience during the PowerPoint presentation.
* * * BEGINNING OF TALKING POINTS FOR FIRST SLIDE * * *]
Welcome to this discussion of Bread for the World’s 2018 Offering of Letters, which focuses on urging Congress to make funding decisions so that all people, regardless of where they live, have the opportunity to reach their God-given potential.
[Option 1: Go on to slide 2 to speak about Bread for the World and the important grassroots advocacy work it does on hunger issues.]
[Option 2: Skip to slide 5 to speak about Bread for the World’s campaign in 2018.]

2. What is Bread for the World?
Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. By changing policies, programs, and conditions that allow hunger and poverty to persist, we provide help and opportunity far beyond the communities in which we live.
[This is a good opportunity for you to briefly tell how you became involved with Bread for the World and why as a volunteer you contribute your time and talent to its advocacy work. You can also ask for a show of hands of people who are Bread members or who have participated in advocacy with Bread.
Depending on your audience’s familiarity with Bread for the World and your time for this presentation, you may want to show the video “We are Bread for the World” (7-minute version at or 1-minute version at

3. Bread for the World is ecumenical bipartisan a justice leader
an advocacy
organization with
years of experience and success
a way to maximize
personal letters and s
Today we want to take action as part of Bread for the World’s mission to end hunger.
Every year, Bread identifies one aspect of hunger that people across the nation will write letters about. The goal is to flood the offices of our elected officials in Washington, D.C., with letters and s on that single issue so that they know that we as Christians and as their constituents care about issues that affect people living in poverty and hunger.
Bread is committed to being ecumenical and bipartisan – no specific denomination or political party has the monopoly on speaking about issues of hunger and poverty.

4. Our work makes a difference!
[Before you deliver this presentation, look at our recent successes outlined on our website in the tool kit section (bread.org/get-2018-Offering-Letters-toolkit) under “Victories from Recent Offering of Letters” . Which ones would you like to lift up during your presentation? Would domestic or international issues speak best to your audience? Choose an example or two to illustrate how letters as part of Bread’s Offering of Letters campaigns have made a difference in the past.]

5. Progress against hunger, but more work to do.
Worldwide, extreme poverty has been cut in half over the past 25 years, but it is rising again.
Nearly 815 million people in the world are hungry.
In the U.S., 1 in 8 lives at risk of hunger, including approximately 13 million children.
This is the reason we’re here today:
The United States and the world have made substantial progress toward ending hunger and poverty over the past several decades.
Worldwide, extreme poverty—living on less than $1.90 a day—has been cut in half over the past 30 years. But in 2016, for the first time since the turn of the century, the number of people living in hunger increased.
For such a time as this, advocacy to end hunger is needed more than ever.
Nearly 815 million people in the world are hungry.
In the United States, 1 in 8 lives at risk of hunger, including 13 million children. Hunger rates have been declining since 2011, but too many people still struggle to put food on the table. Recent tax cuts and numerous proposals to cut funding for anti-hunger and anti-poverty programs in the past year, put progress at risk.

6. For Such a Time as This
“And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
—Esther 4:14
We are making progress toward the end of hunger, but we live in challenging times. Our gains are increasingly vulnerable due to the actions and inactions of governing officials.
[Read Esther 4:14 and consider Esther’s example for such a time as this. Read “A Biblical Reflection for Such a Time as This” in the tool kit—bread.org/get-2018-Offering-Letters-toolkit]
Our great democracy gives all Americans access to powerful decision makers. Just as Esther in the Old Testament was called to be an advocate with the king of Persia for her threatened people, we are called to speak up with leaders in Congress to protect vital programs for people who struggle with hunger and poverty. We must call on our leaders to ensure that all people, regardless of where they live, have the opportunity to reach their God-given potential.

7. Our Goal:
Urge Congress to invest in programs and support policies that help improve the lives of men, women, and children struggling with hunger in the U.S. and around the world.
We know how to end hunger. Food assistance programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Women, Infant, Children (WIC) nutrition program, and school meals keep hunger at bay for millions of vulnerable Americans. Studies show that they also help children do better in school and in life.
Job training and tax credits give low-income workers the tools and incentives they need to move themselves out of poverty.
Putting our tax dollars toward policies and programs that have been tested and proven to increase opportunity is critical to ending hunger and poverty.
Last year, the faithful and persistent advocacy of you and other Bread for the World members helped stop devastating cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. Congress fully funded key hunger and poverty programs in the United States and around the world, and due to high-level advocacy during a critical moment, also provided an additional $1 billion for famine relief.
In 2018, the Congress will once again target vital domestic and international anti-hunger and anti-poverty programs for deep cuts. Bread stands with you and people of faith across the United States to remind Congress through the Offering of Letters that we must respond to Jesus’ call to help those most in need.

8. Key Safety-net Programs
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
Humanitarian relief programs (Food for Peace)
Poverty-Focused Development Assistance (PFDA)
Key safety-net programs that help people living with hunger include:
• Nutrition programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Women, Infant and Children (WIC) nutrition program, and school meals provide millions of low-income children and families with nutritious food. SNAP alone kept 3.6 million Americans out of poverty in 2016.
• Tax credits for low-income workers, such as the earned income tax credit and child tax credit, do more to reduce hunger and poverty and encourage work than any other government program. In 2016, these tax credits moved 8.2 million people in the United States out of poverty.
• Humanitarian relief programs provide lifesaving assistance following natural and man-made disasters. In South Sudan, for example, these programs have provided food and other assistance that have saved lives and reduced suffering.
• International poverty-focused development assistance improves nutrition, provides access to safe water and sanitation, and helps struggling farm families increase production and income. Today, fewer children around the world are dying and more are thriving than ever before, partly due to our nation’s investments in nutrition and agriculture programs. For just 1 percent of our federal budget, foreign assistance saves lives and helps make the world safer.

9. Churches and charities alone can’t feed everyone who is hungry.
Last year, the president’s 2018 budget outlined the largest cuts ever to programs. The proposed budget included cuts to SNAP ($193 billion), EITC ($40 billion) and eliminated food for peace (humanitarian aid), as well as cutting other vital programs responsible for progress against global and domestic hunger. If enacted,
the country’s religious congregations will have to add $714,000 to their annual budgets each year for the next decade to make up for the drastic cuts found in President Trump’s federal fiscal year 2018 budget proposal. The President’s 2019 budget proposal again includes deep cuts to the programs we care about.
In 2013, federal nutrition programs delivered nearly 20 times the amount of food assistance as did private charities.
[This may also be a good time to talk about how cuts to these programs would affect your community. Does your church have a program, such as a pantry, that responds to your communities hunger needs. If budget cuts increased needs dramatically, could your church respond? Find out how many people in your state participate in the SNAP or WIC program in Bread for the World’s state-by-state fact sheets. Find fact sheets and other resources in the tool kit at bread.org/activist.
Talk about your what your denomination is doing to alleviate hunger around the world.]

10. Food Assistance as a Lifeline
“The only reason we’ve been able to get to this point is that we had food assistance.”
—Stephanie Rice, mom and college student
[Tell a story. Use your own or tell the story of the Rice family from the Real Life Stories in the Offering of Letters tool kit (bread.org/get-2018-Offering-Letters-toolkit) to illustrate that how the federal government spends tax money has real-life consequences.]
Ohioan Stephanie Rice is a full-time mom and taking college courses. Her husband James earns $35,000 a year as the manager of a storage facility. Without SNAP to supplement their food budget, the Rice’s would need to choose between food and other bills.
“If that had not been there, I wouldn’t have been able to pay the bills,” Stephanie said. “It was a situation where every penny had to be accounted for. Even the slightest interruption in food stamps would have completely upset the balance.”
In 2016, the average SNAP recipient in Ohio received approximately $124 a month, or $1.38 per meal. The Rice family never collected that much because James had full-time jobs after Stephanie left the workforce to take care of the children.
Cutting SNAP would create an even greater hardship for the Rice family, who are already struggling to make ends meet on a single pay check.

11. When There Is Peace, There Is Food
“Bullets and guns will not restore South Sudan. We have thousands of acres of fertile land, but we need help to cultivate them and grow our own food.”
—Bishop Joseph Garang Atem, Episcopal bishop of the Diocese
of Renk
[Tell a story. Talk about your denomination’s involvement in foreign assistance or tell the story about a local church building peace and food security in South Sudan titled, “When There is Peace, There is Food.” from the Real Life Stories in the Offering of Letters tool kit (bread.org/get-2018-Offering-Letters-toolkit)
Helping to end hunger and poverty for our brothers and sisters globally is also part of our calling to speak up for such a time as this. Investing in humanitarian relief and poverty-focused development assistance is vital to build the food security that will end hunger by 2030.
Ending hunger is key to building a safer world. More and more, conflict drives food insecurity. South Sudan is one of the world poorest countries, has many fertile regions, but is facing famine. Foreign assistance through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is important for the future of South Sudan. Boosting food production and improving nutrition must go hand-in-hand with peace building for a sustainable future.

12. Key Components of a Letter to Congress
Make it personal. Describe what motivated you to write.
Make your request clear.
Include your address in the letter.
[Your Offering of Letters kit contains a sample letter, including addresses for your members of Congress (page 10 in the bound part). For up-to-date sample letters or more background information, contact your regional organizer or visit Bread’s Offering of Letters website at

13. Dear Congress:
As Congress works on the fiscal year 2019 budget and spending bills, I ask you to invest in and protect key programs that will reduce hunger and poverty.
Our country and the world have made progress against hunger and poverty in recent decades. I want you to continue to invest in programs like SNAP and tax credits for low-income workers. Continued funding for programs that reduce hunger and poverty around the world are also important to me.
My faith calls me to urge you to make public investments that will move us toward the end of hunger.
Sincerely,
[Your Name and Address]
[Be sure to have the names and spellings of your area’s members of Congress on hand; you don’t want people not to participate simply because they’re not sure to whom they should write.]

14. Get Involved! Become a Bread member Join/start a local Bread Team
Visit your member of Congress
Become a Bread Covenant Church
Visit bread.org/join
[After you write your letters, discuss ways to do more in advocacy through Bread for the World to maximize your impact.]

15. Thank You! www.bread.org/OL
[After the letter writing, thank those who helped to organize it and those who participated. If you had a small number of people writing letters, assure them that for most members of Congress it takes only about 10 letters for the office to notice the topic and assign a legislative aide to research it and form an opinion.
Finally, don’t forget to report your Offering of Letters to Bread for the World — the paper report form and the link to the online report form are available in the kit.]
Thank you for speaking to Congress about why ending hunger is important to you!