EPPC's Latest Initiative: The Hunger Institute 

Why is there still Poverty?  Because we have never really been united in our effort to make a tangible difference in poverty-ravaged countries around the world or here in America.  We expect someone else to address the issue, because it is an issue simply too large for one person or organization.   There is a call to action anywhere you live in the world.  Faith & Community Organizations need to make a new committment and focus on addressing the issue of poverty.   Complacency and mediocrity have no place in faith. It is not about us, but it is about the hurting and helpless. Maybe we all need to be challenged to our core.   

Currently, over 1 billion people worldwide live on less than $1 per day, and another 1.6 billion people struggle to survive on less than $2 per day. The United States has recognized the need for increased financial and technical assistance to countries burdened by extreme poverty, as well as the need for strengthened economic and trade opportunities for those countries. At the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, the United States joined more than 180 other countries in committing to work toward goals to improve life for the world’s poorest people by 2015. Goal 1 of the Millennium Development Goals aims to reduce by one-half the proportion of people, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day. The U.S. has established several significant initiatives in recent years that are consistent with this goal, including the Millennium Challenge Act of 2003, the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, and trade preference programs for developing countries, such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act. 

Initiatives by the United States to reduce global poverty reflect the basic American principle of helping those in need to live with dignity and opportunity. They are also consistent with our national security priorities. The bipartisan Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (2004) recommends: `A comprehensive United States strategy to counter terrorism should include economic policies that encourage development, more open societies, and opportunities for people to improve the lives of their families and enhance prospects for their children.’

"I was hungry. I was thirsty. I was naked. I was a stranger. I was sick. I was in prison. You didn't come to me. You didn't feed me. You didn't clothe me." And the people said, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and thirsty and naked and a stranger and sick and in prison?" He says, "As you've done to the least of these, you've done to me." That's Matthew 25 [verses 42-45].

Food Security and Poverty.  Food prices continue to rapidly increase.  The increase has occured for many reasons, notably to a growing demand around the globe, as well as weather disruptions and the expansion of bio-fuel production. Consequently, people have been driven from poverty to abject poverty and from despair to anger, creating both economic and political crises. Globally the focus will be on cutting-edge efforts to enhance agricultural productivity and inventive models that help small farmers gain access to local and global markets alike.

Globalization, technological change, trade issues, federal budget constraints, global warming, high energy costs, land-development pressures, and increasing environmental and food safety concerns are all likely to have a profound impact on rural communities and on future prospects for sustaining a prosperous and vibrant farm economy. At the same time, new markets are opening to farmers that already are paying enormous dividends. Investments in biofuels projects and wind farms, as well as the generation of carbon credits, are providing farmers and ranchers with new sources of income that are transforming the rural American economy. Faith & Community Organizations need to take swift action to address humanitarian crises in the short term, and provide sustainable solutions to confront food demand increases from rapidly growing nations, like India and China, in the long run.

"The moment God is figured out with nice neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God."
— Rob Bell (Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith)

EPPC's Latest Initiative: The Hunger Institute 

 Putting Faith Into Action