WASHINGTON (RNS) — A mile from where Republicans on Capitol Hill work toward passing a budget bill containing the biggest cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in history, one of the most prominent Christian anti-hunger groups has gathered to celebrate its 50th anniversary — and to figure out how to try to move the hearts of lawmakers.
“ We have to remind people in power that what happens to a poor child happens to you, because we are one body,” said the Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, academic dean for Fuller Seminary’s Centro Latino, to a gathering of Latino leaders that kicked off the event. “We need to pastor our representatives.”
Bread for the World launched its first letter-writing campaign in 1975, sending more than 100,000 letters to members of Congress on the right to have food. In the decades since 1970, when the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said that about 35% of people in developing countries were undernourished, that hunger rate dropped to around 13% in 2015.
The organization has historically been able to count on support from both Democrats and Republicans for anti-hunger programs. Now, its members are worried about sweeping changes to U.S. funding for domestic and international nutrition programs.
The version of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” budget passed by House Republicans would cut $290 billion from SNAP over the next decade, in part by reducing federal contributions to states’ SNAP programs and by increasing work requirements to access the program.
Bread for the World is sounding the alarm about the Trump administration’s attempt to pull back funding for international global nutrition programs already allocated by Congress and to codify cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and State Department made by the Department of Government Efficiency.
Ada Laureano Carrasquillo speaks with panelists during the Latino convening at Bread for the World’s 50th anniversary advocacy summit, Monday, June 9, 2025, at Museum of the Bible in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)
But despite the proposals that are putting Bread for the World on defense, Marco Grimaldo, strategist for national church partners and Latino communities, told RNS that the organization has “ felt it really important to look at policies that we could win and that would make a difference in other people’s lives.”
One of those areas is the MODERN WIC Act, which focuses on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. Bread for the World is advocating for both an increase in funding for the program as well as the act’s provision allowing participants to become certified virtually.
Grimaldo led a session for about 50 advocates gathered for a Latino convening, a subset of about 500 expected to attend the full summit, which runs through Wednesday (June 11).
Salvatierra told the group that the Latino church had unique gifts to bring to advocacy against hunger.
“ We know the real stories of real families that are suffering. We don’t just know their suffering; we know their contribution. We know their hard work,” Salvatierra said. “We can fight the lie that poor people are just needy and nothing else.”
Heads are bowed for prayer after a meal during Bread for the World’s 50th anniversary advocacy summit, Monday, June 9, 2025, at Museum of the Bible in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)
During the Latino convening, leaders talked about the struggles their communities in the U.S. and Puerto Rico are facing. “The reality is that right now we’re suffering a lot,” said Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, in Spanish.
Because of immigration arrests, families with mixed immigration statuses are afraid to pick up their children from school or go to work, church and the supermarket. Historic flooding in the valley in late March wiped out everything some families had, Pimentel said.
With Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launching investigations into migrant ministries, fear of legal consequences is also something “paralyzing the community,” Pimentel said, emphasizing that nonetheless, “ Catholic Charities is here to help those that need us.”
Felipe Salinas, who has worked in youth ministry, higher education and fundraising in the Rio Grande Valley, said the Rio Grande Valley Food Bank currently serves 80,000 to 85,000 people a week, but U.S. Department of Agriculture cuts that went into effect a few months ago “affected the food bank’s ability to get fresh fruits and vegetables.”
Now facing down cuts to SNAP, “in order for the food bank to make up the difference, there would need to be two and a half food banks,” he said.
Ada Laureano Carrasquillo, a pastor of a Caguas, Puerto Rico, church and a professor of health and nutrition at Universidad Ana G. Méndez, told the group in Spanish that many shared a common history living on land acquired from Spain in Puerto Rico, Texas, California and Arizona. “We are war trophies,” she said, noting that the U.S., rather than save the island from Spain’s exploitation, imposed harsh taxes and hardships.
“It costs a lot to live on the island. It costs a lot to feed yourself on the island. Our people are facing hunger, and they’re living with poverty,” said the pastor and professor, choking up. “We need help,” she said through tears.
The costume of a member of the University of Puerto Rico tuna, Monday, June 9, 2025, at Museum of the Bible in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)
Puerto Rico receives food assistance not through SNAP, but the Nutrition Assistance Program. Unlike SNAP funding, which is tied to need, NAP has a fixed amount of funding through a block grant, which prevents the program from expanding when hunger rises.
The Latino gathering included a sizable contingent of students, including the members of the University of Puerto Rico’s tuna, a type of folkloric music group traditionally made up of students facing hunger who performed in exchange for food. Today, the University of Puerto Rico’s tuna honors that history by attaching spoons to members’ costumes and by partnering with campus organizations working on hunger.
Edithmarie Claudio, who directs the group, told RNS that attending the Latino convening made clear that Puerto Ricans “are not alone” in experiencing hunger. “Sometimes we think it only touches us as a country, but we are seeing it from another perspective here,” she said.
On Tuesday, the tuna performed at a major gathering of college students on Capitol Hill, who urged their lawmakers to address hunger on college campuses. Two-thirds of the 3.3 million college students eligible for SNAP benefits in 2020 were not receiving them, Bread for the World said, citing U.S. Government Accountability Office data.
Mya Bell became involved with Bread for the World through her work with her university’s food pantry at Purdue University Northwest. But attending Bread’s advocacy training taught her that “ instead of putting a Band-Aid on the issue of hunger, there’s work that’s being done to bring an end to it,” she said.
Bell, a Mexican and Macedonian American whose family received nutrition assistance and Medicaid, said she sometimes felt “helpless” growing up. “ Knowing that I went through something like that so I can uplift others that are going through something similar to me and carry on my story and the story of countless other people, it just feels like I’m following God’s plan for me,” she said.
