Our Impact

Offering of Letters

Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters is a powerful way that local congregations and other faith communities, such as campuses, can get involved in Bread's advocacy work. The Offering of Letters is Bread’s signature and longest-running program. This year-long campaign focuses on a single issue and alternates year-to-year between a domestic and an international hunger issue.

The way it works is simple. It uses the same principle of a monetary offering collected at a worship service in which the offering is blessed before being put to use. In an Offering of Letters, a group of members gathers on a chosen day during the year (such as at an adult forum) and learns about that year’s issue. Then the group writes letters to their members of Congress, urging them to take action on that issue. The letters are collected and blessed by the congregation before being mailed to their members of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Bread for the World produces a kit of materials each year for coordinators of a letter-writing event to help them carry out an Offering of Letters. The kit includes:

• print materials: a how-to booklet, a booklet giving an overview of the issue, a sample bulletin insert, a poster, a biblical reflection on the year's topic
• electronic materials: videos showing real-life stories; a PowerPoint presentation
• where to find other resources and information

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Bread for the World Sunday (English and Español)

Bread for the World Sunday is an opportunity for your church or community of faith to join with others—in thousands of churches across the country—to live out God's vision of a world without hunger. Through our prayers for an end to hunger, letters, and phone calls to our nation's leaders, and financial support to Bread of the World, your church can give bold witness to God's justice and mercy in the world.

Your Bread for the World Sunday celebration can be as simple as including prayers for people struggling with hunger during a worship service. Prayers for the day are an ideal opportunity to remember those affected by hunger—and our nation’s decision makers who can change the policies and conditions that allow hunger to persist. Or you may wish to devote your sermon, children's message, and other activities to ending hunger in God's world. Many churches have a “mission moment” before the offering or perhaps there can be a special announcement.

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