Washington, D.C. – Bread for the World, as part of the Circle of Protection, welcomes the passing of the American Rescue Plan. This bill is especially important for poor and low-income people who have been struggling for a year now. We see this as an important step to recovery and helping communities that have been disproportionately affected by the dual health and economic crises.
The Circle of Protection sent a letter late last month to all members of Congress and key members of the Biden administration urging them to pass another round of COVID relief to address the “concurrent crises of the pandemic, economic recession, and systemic racism.” We also asked in the letter for members of Congress from both parties to work together to address the urgent needs of millions of Americans.
“God calls on us to help those who are struggling, and right now the need is great,” said Rev. Eugene Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World. “The American Rescue Plan will help to ease the burden on millions of struggling families and do more to reduce hunger and poverty among our nation’s children than any single policy has in decades.”
The Circle of Protection is a broad and unprecedented coalition of church and ministry leaders from the main families of U.S. Christianity — Catholic, evangelical Protestant, ecumenical Protestant, the Historic African American churches, and Latino churches — working to address issues of poverty and hunger through advocacy work. Together, the church bodies in the Circle of Protection have close to 100 million members.
