On June 17, 2008, nearly 300 Bread for the World members and friends from 34 states—including Hawaii—came to Washington, DC, to participate in Bread for the World's annual Lobby Day. In 180 meetings (63 with Senate offices, 117 with House offices), they reminded members of Congress that the United States needs to do its part to respond to the unfolding global hunger crisis. Members of Congress and their staffs heard a united voice of support for the Global Poverty Act and a $5 billion increase in poverty-focused development assistance for 2009.
Carol Kreamer and others from Missouri prepared for Lobby Day by organizing two June Offerings of Letters that generated more than 500 letters. One of these took place on the final morning of the annual Missouri Conference of the United Methodist Church.
"I'm sure many people just wanted to go home on that Monday," said Kreamer. "[But] I told the conference that my granddaughter and I would personally deliver their letters if they wrote them right then and there."
Kreamer and her granddaughter, Celia Lamprecht, (pictured at right bottom) presented all the letters to the offices of Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Christopher Bond (R-MO). They also brought along photos of friends in Mozambique who are affected by malaria: the Nhantumbo family, including 4-year-old Carol, and Kreamer's colleague, Laurina Osseia, who died of complications from malaria in 2006.
"Making the statistics real was one of the challenges of our visit," said Kreamer.
Jeffrey Joe and Patricia Carter (pictured below with Sen. Crapo) are in Bread's first class of Hunger Justice Leaders. One of their Lobby Day visits was with Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID). Joe observed that his first-time visit to a member of Congress might have been a fairly uncommon experience for the senator as well.
"Idaho is a small western state, and there is a sense that the federal government doesn't do a whole lot for us. Getting more resources for global hunger is probably not the usual thing that constituents come to talk to Sen. Crapo about. But he listened and carefully looked at the Global Poverty Act legislation," Joe said.
"I think the take-away message is that you don’t have to be apathetic. You can have your voice heard about things that are important to you."
