It’s Never Too Late to Learn and Becoming an Advocate for the Hungry

By Martin C. Fergus

Part I – It’s Never Too Late to Learn

I have been engaged with the issue of hunger, both domestic and international, for over forty years, not only in my academic career at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York, but also through volunteer work outside the university. I participated in a local interdenominational program to deliver food and clothing to the homeless in New York City, chaired the hunger committee of the Metro New York Synod of the Lutheran Church (ELCA), organized workshops and advocated for federal anti-hunger programs as a member of Bread for the World, serving on Bread’s national board of directors for six years, and I am a member of the advisory board of Kids Can Make a Difference.

I thought there was little new that I could learn about hunger. How wrong I was!

After retiring from Fordham University, I relocated to the state of Minnesota. About two weeks ago our local Bread for the World group gave a workshop to a class of students at Bethel University in St. Paul who are enrolled in a program that prepares them for a career in social work. The primary focus of the workshop was on federal nutrition programs and how each of us can become advocates to insure that such programs remain viable and available for those who need them.

One section of the workshop included hearing “stories” from people who had benefitted from federal nutrition programs. Our panelists included a woman who had been on Food Stamps (now SNAP) and WIC when she was a young mother raising her family, and two students from near-by Century College. When the students began to talk they immediately went “off message,” i.e. they were not discussing the benefits they had received from federal nutrition programs, but rather their focus was primarily on the food pantry at Century College and the large number of students (if I recall correctly, it was something like 25% to 30% of the student body) who frequented it.

While later in their presentation (in response to a question I asked) they did say they also helped students walk through the process of signing up for programs such as SNAP, the main “story” that came across was that hunger is a critical problem on college campuses today.

Fortunately, this important story has not been completely neglected, even if some of us who should have known about it before had missed it. Exactly one week after the workshop that we gave at Bethel University, the Minneapolis Star Tribune ran an article titled “More students in Minnesota colleges struggle to get enough to eat.” The article describes a food line at the University of Minnesota with “about 800 U students [waiting] to get a bag of free groceries…at the monthly food shelf distribution at Coffman Union.” It adds: “Food insecurity now cuts across higher education in Minnesota, a hardship for students enrolled at community and technical schools, state universities, even elite private colleges.”

But this is not just a Minnesota problem. As the Star Tribune article notes, one of the responses to food insecurity on Minnesota campuses, including at the University of Minnesota and at Carleton College in Northfield, has been participation in the “Swipe Out Hunger donation drive…part of a national nonprofit founded in 2009 at ULCA, where students donate unused or guest ‘swipes’ on their dining cards to classmates. Swipe Out Hunger now has 36 chapters at colleges nationwide.”

Fast forward less than a week and in my email inbox appeared the latest (number 231) “Idea Clearing House” message from Larry Levine at Kids Can Make a Difference, an article by Bill Ayres of WhyHunger titled: Hungry to Learn but Hungry to Eat: Hunger in Colleges. This article, the first in a three-part series, documents how widespread the hunger problem has become on college campuses around the nation. One problem is that while many students receive SNAP benefits – a recent survey found that 25% of students questioned receive SNAP benefits – many of the rest are ineligible for this program under current regulations.

Ayres points out that the political atmosphere in Washington, D.C. makes any expansion of this program for students unlikely, but adds that things may change after the 2018 election. He writes: “SNAP is the most effective government program to fight hunger. We need to make sure it is not cut but expanded to provide nutrition so that college students can learn, get their degrees and living wage jobs.”

Part II – Becoming an Advocate for the Hungry

This brings me back to our recent workshop at Bethel University. As noted above, the primary focus of the workshop was on federal nutrition programs and how each of us can become advocates to insure that such programs remain viable and available for those who need them. We can now add that one group that needs a program like SNAP is students on college campuses. What can you do to become an advocate for the hungry, including college students?

If you live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, the answer is simple. We will be giving a version of the same workshop we gave at Bethel University again, this time open to the general public, on Saturday, April 21, 2018 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon at St. Stephen Lutheran Church, 8400 France Ave. S., Bloomington, MN 55431. The workshop is free and no advance registration is required. For more information about this workshop, go to www.breadmn.org.

If you do not live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, or are otherwise unable to attend the workshop, I would be happy to email you copies of some of the handouts that we will be making available at the workshop, including “Effective Advocacy to Overcome Hunger and Poverty.” Simply send your request with the subject line “Workshop Materials” to martinfergus@hotmail.com.

A somewhat abbreviated and more generic version of the handout on “Effective Advocacy to Overcome Hunger and Poverty” follows here:

Effective Advocacy to Overcome Hunger and Poverty
(Abbreviated and More Generic Format – April 3, 2018)

Preparing for Advocacy

What is the message (“the ask”) you need to convey?

a . Ask for something specific, e.g. to support a specific program or policy, to fund a specific program, to support a specific piece of legislation

b. Explain why this is important to you.

c. Provide evidence or examples to show what you are supporting is effective public policy.

d. Don’t just copy someone else’s “sample message.” It is important to personalize your message.

Who are your elected Representatives?

How do you contact your Representatives in Washington D.C. or State & Local Officials?
1. See www.usa.gov/elected-officials

Tools for Advocacy

WRITING LETTERS to your members of Congress
1. Do not just copy the sample letter. The most effective letter is one that is personalized.
2. Representative ______________________ Senator ___________________________

U.S. House of Representatives U.S. Senate Washington, D.C. 20515 Washington, D.C. 20510
3. Due to security procedures, mail may take up to three weeks to reach the office of your member of Congress. Other forms of communication are quicker and often, if not always, as effective.
4. The weight of the appeal can be increased by generating multiple letters on the same topic, such as by having an “OFFERING OF LETTERS” in your local congregation, organization or group. For how to organize an Offering of Letters go to
www.bread.org/get-2018-offering-letters-toolkit and click on “Guide to Conducting an Offering of Letters.”

EMAILING or TWEETING your members of Congress
1. Go to the webpage for your Representative or Senator. There will be a form for you to use for your email. Emails should be personalized if they are to be effective.
2. You can find this webpage by going to www.usa.gov/elected-officials
3. For many members of Congress, you will also find instructions for tweeting them a message.

TELEPHONING the Washington, D.C. office of your members of Congress

VISITING the local or Washington, D.C. office of your Representative or Senators to meet with them (or a member of their staff)

USING PUBLIC MEETINGS to Engage with Members of Congress

USING SOCIAL MEDIA to Grow the Movement and Speak Truth to Power

SUBMITTING A LETTER TO THE EDITOR OR AN “OP ED” to your local newspaper
1. For general guidelines for writing a letter to the editor of your local paper, see www.bread.org/sites/default/files/downloads/gar-how-to-letter-editor.pdf
2. For specific guidelines for writing a letter to the editor of your local paper, see their website. For the Minneapolis Star Tribune, see www.startribune.com/submit-a-letter-or-commentary/115289839

GENERALLY INEFFECTIVE TOOLS OF ADVOCACY INCLUDE:

• Form Letters

• Form Email Messages
• Pre-written Post Cards
• Petitions
• Faxes of Any Kind

APPENDIX

How to Conduct a Meeting with a Member of Congress (or the Staff)
1. See www.bread.org/sites/default/files/downloads/gar-how-to-in-district-meetings.pdf

Among other things, covers how to set-up the meeting in the first place.
2. From a handout prepared by Tammy Walhof for the Twin Cities Bread for the World 2013 Offering of Letters Workshop:

Carrying-out Your Visit to Your Member of Congress
Some General Guidelines
• Always provide accurate information (can be obtained from www.bread.org)
• Be courteous
• Develop long-term relationships with your Representative and/or his/her staff
• Don’t take a member of Congress for granted when they support your decision; they need to hear from people who support the things they are doing

Before the Meeting
• Plan carefully and well in advance the main points to be made
• Make sure everyone has a part
• Take a moment of silence or prayer together shortly before the meeting to get your thoughts (and emotions) in order

At the Meeting
• Lead off by thanking the representative (or aide) for some action, at minimum for arranging to meet
• Say who you are and where you are from (e.g., what city)
• Say why you are there
• Don’t argue with your Representative; just state your case
• Ask for a specific action (the more specific the better, such as, “Can we count on the Representative’s support for this legislation)
1. Give your reasons for supporting the bill or policy
2. Provide a personal story related to the bill or issue; e.g. someone in your church greatly benefitted from the EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) program
3. Describe the impact on the district (in the case of a representative) or the state (in the case of a senator); such data is often available from Bread or from local anti-hunger groups
• Avoid straying off the topic during the meeting, by any member of your group or by the Representative
• When you ask for a specific action, if appropriate, arrange for a follow-up: e.g., if an aide has said he will bring the matter to the attention of the Representative, indicate you will call in a few weeks to see if the Representative’s support has been forthcoming. Follow-up is always a good form of “positive pressure.”
• Leave them with a handout that provides essential information
• Thank them before leaving

Immediately after the Meeting
• Get together those who went on your visit to “debrief.” Agree on what the Representative said and what was promised.
• Select one member of the group to write a follow-up letter to the Representative, summarizing the meeting and the “ask”
• Select one member of the group to provide a summary of the meeting, including what was asked for and promised, to Bread’s staff in Washington, D.C. [or to Bread’s local organizer who can provide the information to Bread’s staff in Washington, D.C.] so they can follow-up
• Assess what went well or poorly in the meeting and how the effectiveness of the next meeting can be improved

Additional Follow-up – Multiply the Effect of Your Visit by a “Cocktail” of Actions
• Send out a press release (including a photo of your office visit) to your local paper describing your “citizen visit” to petition your Representative
• Have someone write a letter to the editor on the same policy or legislation addressed in your visit. (See Bread’s guidelines for writing a letter to the editor.)
• Set up an editorial board meeting with your local newspaper and encourage them to write an editorial supporting the policy or legislation you favor
• Through Offerings of Letters, generate multiple letters to your Representative on the same policy or legislation addressed in your visit
• Through email lists, social media or telephone trees, generate multiple phone calls to your Representative on the same policy or legislation addressed in your visit

With the exception of the Appendix, this handout has been prepared by Martin Fergus with Bread for the World’s 2018 Offering of Letters Campaign in mind and relies on links to that campaign. However, much of the information is useful for other years and for other organizations (e.g. Results).

For questions about this handout, contact Martin Fergus at Martinfergus@hotmail.com
Martin C. Fergus, Ph.D., is Associate Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Fordham University and a member of the KIDS advisory board. He currently resides in Minneapolis, where he remains active in the hunger ministry of his local congregation and serves along with his wife, Dottie, on the Twin Cities’ Metro Area Team of Bread for the World (www.breadmn.org). He may be contacted at fergus@fordham.edu or martinfergus@hotmail.com.