Why Speak Up

Why should you speak up? Because of families like Rosie's.

​Listen as 10-year old Rosie reveals the realities of a living in a food insecure household. 

​1 in 6 children here in Indiana live, like Rosie, in poverty.
Hunger in Our State
Indiana is the 11th hungriest state in the country.​​
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  • 1 of every 6 children in Indiana live in poverty.
  • ​1 in 7 households in Indiana struggle to put food on the table.
  • An individual must earn more than $15 per hour in Indiana to provide for a family, yet, the state minimum wage is $7.75.
  • In 2017, over 100 million meals were provided by federal programs in Marion County alone. But these federal programs are constantly at risk during budget cuts.

Will you join Bread in speaking up for families struggling right here in Indiana? Learn more about what we do and how you can get involved.

A Family on the Edge
Carin (not her real name) and her family seem to fit the category of the ‘working poor’. When Carin’s first husband died, she was left to care for two young children on her own. Now remarried, her husband works full time but in a minimum wage job without benefits. Carin did not finish high school and when last she worked she too was working for minimum wage.

Even with the assistance of SNAP, church food pantries, and school lunch for the kids, they are on the edge. They do not have a telephone or access to a working car. The kids always eat but she and her husband sometimes forgo food for as long as a whole day to assure there is food for the children.

Government-funded programs like SNAP are a huge reason that Carin’s children do not go to bed hungry. And thousands more Indiana families depend upon those programs as well. Unfortunately, these programs are the same ones that are so often often threatened by budget cuts. If the thought of losing funding to feed struggling families pulls at your heart, we are here to tell you that you can do something about it. By joining Bread for the World Indiana in advocating for these critical programs, you have the power to secure healthy futures for families like Carin’s. Will you join us?

Hunger in Our World
Ending hunger in our world is feasible. What we need is the political will to do so.

Just as hunger touches the lives of families across the street, so too does is touch families across the globe. Each day 18,000 children die from hunger and related causes. These children are all loved by God. U.S. government programs play an essential role along with private efforts to end this unnecessary tragedy.

​Often government works through private programs, like the wonderful AMPATH program of IU Med School in Eldoret, Kenya. Some things only our government can do, like influencing governments, regulating trade, debt, tax code, large scale disaster response, and infrastructure. It also is a principal funder of agricultural research and development. 

If we don’t speak up for governmental programs, the voice of the hungry will surely be drowned out by a cacophony of self-interested voices.  Learn how you can help. 
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Mother and daughter shell peas from their garden in Nicaragua.