In 1974, Rev. Art Simon and Christian leaders founded Bread for the World to build political will to end hunger in the U.S. and around the world. Their first Offering of Letters led Congress to affirm the right to food. In 1976, the Bread for the World Institute was established to research hunger and educate on strategies to address it worldwide.

Bread helped persuade Congress to expand the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which provides food and nutrition education. Bread has built bipartisan support for WIC, with nearly half of all babies born in the U.S. now benefiting. Bread contributed to Congress’s decision to expand the school breakfast program, which now reaches 15.5 million children per day.

Bread played a pivotal roll in convincing Congress to establish the international Child Survival Fund and secure funding to protect 100 million children annually through immunization, reducing daily child deaths in developing countries from 50,000 in the 1980s to 14,000 today. It also won $800 million in emergency food aid for East Africa and supported the International Fund for Agricultural Development, boosting smallholder farmers worldwide.

Rev. David Beckmann became Bread for the World’s second president. Under his leadership, Bread secured passage of the Horn of Africa Relief and Recovery Act, supporting peace efforts in Ethiopia and development assistance. Bread also expanded poverty-focused aid, which has tripled, and secured a $2 billion increase for WIC, Head Start, and Job Corps, now the largest residential career training program in the U.S.

Bread’s first campaign to educate congressional candidates about childhood hunger secured a commitment to address it from 40 percent of elected candidates. Bread secured the passage of the Africa: Seeds of Hope Act, reviving USAID’s focus on agriculture and establishing the Bill Emerson Trust Fund for faster emergency aid. Bread also won $1.6 billion for nutrition programs, protecting 400,000 people from losing WIC and SNAP benefits.

Bread helped lead the Jubilee campaign, reducing the debt burden of 36 poor countries by 90 percent and enabling African girls to attend school. Bread encouraged Congress to restore food stamp eligibility for legal immigrants, securing $1 billion in groceries annually, and helped pass the Hunger to Harvest resolution for Sub-Saharan Africa. Bread also shaped the Millennium Challenge Account and established the Alliance to End Hunger, engaging diverse organizations to address global poverty.

Bread for the World secured a $10 billion increase for food stamps and food banks and $1.4 billion for poverty-focused development aid in response to HIV/AIDS. It helped launch the ONE Campaign, secured $1.8 billion for emergency aid during the 2008 hunger crisis, and supported the SUN Movement. Bread influenced the Obama administration’s response to global crises, supported the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, and expanded its thought leadership on hunger. Rev. Beckmann received the World Food Prize.

When congressional leaders proposed cutting $2 trillion from poverty programs, Bread and other Christian groups formed the Circle of Protection, leading a fast observed by 36,000 people, including 24 Congress members. This effort protected key programs from cuts. Bread also secured investments in global nutrition, helped pass a reauthorization of child nutrition programs, and developed the racial wealth gap simulation, training over 5,000 people. H.Res. 378 honored Bread’s founder, Rev. Art Simon.

Rev. Eugene Cho became President and CEO of Bread for the World. During the pandemic, Bread supported pandemic relief measures, including the American Rescue Act, reducing child poverty to 5 percent. Bread advocated for the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the Keep Kids Fed Act, and a White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. Bread also secured $1 billion in aid for famine relief and helped block cuts to SNAP, WIC, and Food for Peace.

After 50 years of providing strategies that work to feed billions, Bread for the World continues to advocate in a challenging political climate on behalf of people experiencing hunger in the United States and around the world. In 2025 and beyond, Bread’s policy focuses on alleviating childhood hunger through the Nourish Our Future campaign that will work to secure programs to feed this generation and generations to come.