Struggling to mask his tears, Tony Hall followed a doctor through a mass of dying Ethiopians crying out for food and medicine—help that could not possibly arrive soon enough or in sufficient quantities to keep them alive. From that painful scene of hopelessness, Hall returned home with a new focus for his faith. Both as a U.S. Congressman and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome, he has been a man with a mission. Tony used his passion, faith, and political skills to solicit the aid of those able to help. And as he worked with liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats, and people of very different faiths, he stumbled into a remarkable discovery. He found that people who regularly live at odds often are willing to join forces in helping those who are abjectly poor and hungry. “I’ve learned not only that people can work together across differences . . . but our diversity gives us strength." Let Tony capture your heart with his dream that we may put aside differences and join hands to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and discover the importance of life. .

The world has made progress against hunger and poverty, and we have the opportunity---now---to win changes that will reduce hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world. God is calling people of faith and conscience to change the politics of hunger. "David Beckmann and Bread for the World have done an extraordinary job not only in providing positive responses in the fight against hunger but in helping to lead the way in terms of development and urging the United States to improve coordination and better target our investments and to learn from local communities." ---Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State "It has been my privilege to work with Bread for the World and witness their remarkable work on behalf of hungry people." ---Senator Richard Lugar, Ranking Republican, Senate Foreign Relations Committee "I am delighted to endorse David Beckmann's new book. I have the highest regard for him and his work." ---Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Washington "This is a message for which the church and the world are hungry." ---Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America "When people of hope engage politically, effective change can and does happen. To learn how, read this book-and act!" ---Katherine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop, Episcopal Church "David points to the potential for far greater progress if individual Christians and churches will continue to offer grassroots compassionate care to those in need, while also boldly challenging our government to more generously and wisely participate with us in the battle against poverty and hunger." ---Lynne Hybels, Cofounder, Willow Creek Community Church "Exodus from Hunger tells us how God is moving in history with a concern for the poor and invites us to join that movement." ---Jim Wallis, President, Sojourners "Beckmann tells the truth in ways that empower!" ---Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary

A wrenchingly honest, eloquent memoir “about true nourishment that comes not from [eating] but from engaging on a spiritual path."—Los Angeles Times In this brave and perceptive account of compulsion and the healing process, Bullitt-Jonas describes a childhood darkened by the repressive shadows of her alcoholic father and her emotionally reclusive mother, whose demands for excellence, poise, and self-control drove Bullitt-Jonas to develop an insatiable hunger. What began with pilfering extra slices of bread at her parents' dinner table turned into binges with cream pies and pancakes, sometimes gaining as much as eleven pounds in four days. When the family urged her father into treatment, the author recognized her own addiction and embarked on the path to recovery by discovering the spiritual hunger beneath her craving for food.

"Food can be a unifier and a healer, bringing people together across generations and cultures. Sharing a meal often leads to sharing stories and deepening our understanding of each other and our respective histories and practices, global and local. Newcomers to Minnesota bring their own culinary traditions and may re-create food memories at home, introduce new friends and neighbors to their favorite dishes, and explore comforting flavors and experiences of hospitality at local restaurants, community gatherings, and spiritual ceremonies. They adapt to different growing seasons and regional selections available at corner stores and farmers markets. And generations may communicate through the language of food in addition to a mix of spoken languages old and new. All of these experiences yield stories worth sharing around Minnesota cook fires, circles, and tables. In What We Hunger For, fourteen writers from refugee and immigrant families write about their complicated, poignant, funny, difficult, joyful, and ongoing relationships to food, cooking, and eating" --

In the US, there is a wide-ranging network of at least 370 food banks, and more than 60,000 hunger-relief organizations such as food pantries and meal programs. These groups provide billions of meals a year to people in need. And yet hunger still affects one in nine Americans. What are we doing wrong? In Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries, Katie Martin argues that if handing out more and more food was the answer, we would have solved the problem of hunger decades ago. Martin instead presents a new model for charitable food, one where success is measured not by pounds of food distributed but by lives changed. The key is to focus on the root causes of hunger. When we shift our attention to strategies that build empathy, equity, and political will, we can implement real solutions. Martin shares those solutions in a warm, engaging style, with simple steps that anyone working or volunteering at a food bank or pantry can take today. Some are short-term strategies to create a more dignified experience for food pantry clients: providing client choice, where individuals select their own food, or redesigning a waiting room with better seating and a designated greeter. Some are longer-term: increasing the supply of healthy food, offering job training programs, or connecting clients to other social services. And some are big picture: joining the fight for living wages and a stronger social safety net. These strategies are illustrated through inspiring success stories and backed up by scientific research. Throughout, readers will find a wealth of proven ideas to make their charitable food organizations more empathetic and more effective. As Martin writes, it takes more than food to end hunger. Picking up this insightful, lively book is a great first step.

Hailed as “invaluable…a substantial work of political thought,” (New Statesman) in a groundbreaking report, based on years of reporting, David Rieff assesses whether ending extreme poverty and widespread hunger is truly within our reach, as is increasingly promised. Can we provide enough food for nine billion people in 2050, especially the bottom poorest in the Global South? Some of the most brilliant scientists, world politicians, and aid and development experts forecast an end to the crisis of massive malnutrition in the next decades. The World Bank, IMF, and Western governments look to public-private partnerships to solve the problems of access and the cost of food. “Philanthrocapitalists” Bill Gates and Warren Buffett spend billions to solve the problem, relying on technology. And the international development “Establishment” gets publicity from stars Bob Geldorf, George Clooney, and Bono. “Hunger, [David Rieff] writes, is a political problem, and fighting it means rejecting the fashionable consensus that only the private sector can act efficiently” (The New Yorker). Rieff, who has been studying and reporting on humanitarian aid and development for thirty years, takes a careful look. He cites climate change, unstable governments that receive aid, the cozy relationship between the philanthropic sector and giants like Monsanto, that are often glossed over in the race to solve the crisis. “This is a stellar addition to the canon of development policy literature” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). The Reproach of Hunger is the most complete and informed description of the world’s most fundamental question: Can we feed the world’s population? Rieff answers a careful “Yes” and charts the path by showing how it will take seizing all opportunities; technological, cultural, and political to wipe out famine and malnutrition.

How to focus anti-hunger efforts not on charity but on the root causes of food insecurity, improving public health, and reducing income inequality. Food banks and food pantries have proliferated in response to an economic emergency. The loss of manufacturing jobs combined with the recession of the early 1980s and Reagan administration cutbacks in federal programs led to an explosion in the growth of food charity. This was meant to be a stopgap measure, but the jobs never came back, and the “emergency food system” became an industry. In Big Hunger, Andrew Fisher takes a critical look at the business of hunger and offers a new vision for the anti-hunger movement. From one perspective, anti-hunger leaders have been extraordinarily effective. Food charity is embedded in American civil society, and federal food programs have remained intact while other anti-poverty programs have been eliminated or slashed. But anti-hunger advocates are missing an essential element of the problem: economic inequality driven by low wages. Reliant on corporate donations of food and money, anti-hunger organizations have failed to hold business accountable for offshoring jobs, cutting benefits, exploiting workers and rural communities, and resisting wage increases. They have become part of a “hunger industrial complex” that seems as self-perpetuating as the more famous military-industrial complex. Fisher lays out a vision that encompasses a broader definition of hunger characterized by a focus on public health, economic justice, and economic democracy. He points to the work of numerous grassroots organizations that are leading the way in these fields as models for the rest of the anti-hunger sector. It is only through approaches like these that we can hope to end hunger, not just manage it.