World Food Prize Laureates and José Andrés Urge Doubling of Aid to End Hunger

Photo courtesy of the World Food Prize Foundation

The World Food Prize laureates, along with Chef José Andrés, who leads World Central Kitchen, have issued a joint statement calling for a doubling of investments in emergency food assistance and sustainable agriculture.

Since the World Food Prize began in 1987, the proportion of the world’s people who are hungry has been declining. Progress slowed in recent years because of COVID, climate change, and an increase in violent conflicts. Famine and near-famine conditions have surged in countries like Gaza, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The drastic cut-back in international aid this year (especially U.S. aid) has almost surely increased the proportion of hungry people in the world and without doubt increased misery and death in the most desperate places in the world.  

The World Food Prize Laureates live and work in many countries. They can see how the aid cut-backs are playing out in their situations.  As we gathered in Des Moines this week for the annual Borlaug Forum, we all agreed on how dire the situation is.   

The deputy director of the World Food Program reported to the forum on her recent visit to Sudan. About 24 million people, half the population of Sudan, is coping with famine or near-famine conditions.  The World Food Program is providing emergency assistance to four million of these people. A decline in contributions from the United States and some other governments has forced the World Food Program to reduce the number of people it helps.  Triage operations are also underway in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, and other countries. 

The Laureates’ statement urges a doubling of emergency food aid and a doubling of investment in agriculture, so that struggling families can feed themselves.

The statement has already received strong press coverage, including a good story in Reuters. I encourage you to read it, along with the laureates’ letter.  I especially appreciate the letter’s call on all people to “promote a culture of shared responsibility and action.”

Faith Leaders Call for Bipartisan Cooperation to Reopen the Government

Circle of Protection leaders are urging the President and Congress to come to a bipartisan agreement that would end the government shutdown. They stressed the ways that the shutdown is hurting poor and vulnerable people.

Today’s Circle letter reaffirms the churches’ support for “efforts to make food and health care available and affordable for all Americans.” A bipartisan appropriations process would include reconsideration of the deep cutbacks to food assistance and health insurance that have been made this year. 

The Circle letter shares with the leaders of our divided country what St. Paul said to the divided church in Corinth.  Paul wrote, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable (I Corinthians 12)."

Read the entire letter here.

Interfaith Rally and Vigil for Health Justice

Speaker Hakim Jeffries and an impressive line-up of other House Democrats joined together with faith groups on Friday in an Interfaith Rally and Vigil on Health Justice.  A provision of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that the Circle of Protection opposed is now starting to go into effect. As of January 1, it will take health insurance away from 4 million people and dramatically increase insurance premiums for another 22 million. These are disproportionately  low-income people. 

President Trump and congressional Republicans have been able to make huge changes this year, always acting on their own. But Senate rules require some Democratic votes on decisions about appropriations for the new fiscal year. Congressional Democrats are unwilling to approve Republican legislation on appropriations without putting a stop to the health-care crisis that is now unfolding. The President and congressional Republicans have so far refused to negotiate.  

I was struck by the passion and determination of the Democratic members of Congress who came to the interfaith event on Friday. This photo includes some of the members of Congress and faith leaders at the event:  Shafiq Ahmed, American Muslim Health Professionals; Rev. David Beckmann, Circle of Protection; Rep. Steven Horsford (NV); Rev. Lesley-Copeland Tune, National Council of Churches; Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT); Rev. Camille Henderson-Edwards, United Methodist Church; Rep. Kathleen Clark, House Minority Whip; Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker Emeritus.