If times seem tough for our friends and family now, imagine how tough they are for hungry and poor people. To inject a little extra meaning into the holiday season, each Christmas I put on a fundraiser to help Bread for the World. This year the needs and rewards are particularly great. I’d love to send you a special Christmas gift package in thanks for your gift to empower Bread’s work.
Bread for the World is a non-profit, non-partisan organization working in Washington, DC to urge our government to address the needs of hungry people at home and around the world. Especially today, when there are so many interests elbowing for attention on Capitol Hill, hungry and poor people need a strong, compassionate advocate like Bread.
While all the great charitable work we do as caring citizens is important, it’s interesting to realize that just a 6 percent drop in funding of government programs for hungry and poor people amounts to as much money taken from these causes as all the private donations put together raise. That means that the advocacy work of Bread for the World has a huge impact on the most vulnerable among us. Considering the value of this advocacy work, I’m convinced that supporting Bread is the best way to leverage my charitable giving. That’s why I’ve been a Bread member for thirty years now.
David Beckmann, the president of Bread for the World (who was honored with last year’s World Food Prize for his leadership in the fight against hunger) recently explained to me how Bread’s work is particularly vital, productive and worth empowering with our financial support now. “Deficit hawks have learned they can shape the political landscape of our country with the tool of defunding. We are at a point now where Congress is threatening deep cuts in the programs that provide help and opportunity to poor people in our country – programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, and tax credits for the working poor,” he said. “Of course, all Americans can be enthusiastic about our government running a tight fiscal ship. But if the budget is to be balanced on the backs of our poor, innocent children will suffer, and the civility woven into the fabric of our society will be threatened.” I see Bread for the World not as a charity but as a service. They are transforming my concern about hunger into effective action by waging a courageous and difficult battle to protect struggling people in our country and around the world.
So here’s my challenge to you for this Christmas: Help Bread for the World’s dedicated staff do their work with your gift of $100. As a thank you, I’ll send you three gifts: my Rick Steves’ European Christmas DVD (our PBS-TV special which celebrates a traditional, non-commercial, and sacred Christmas in seven different countries); our European Christmas coffee-table book (sharing the fun insights and best photos I picked up while producing this special); and the Christmas music CD we produced while filming (featuring our 20 favorite European carols). I’ll happily pay for the cost of these gifts and postage so that Bread can use 100 percent of your donation for their work. Make your gift by Dec. 15th and you’ll get everything in time for Christmas.
It’s my hope that these gifts will bring a wonderful new twist to your family celebrations for years to come (as they have for mine) while enticing you to empower Bread for the World with your donation. To learn more and make your gift to Bread, please follow this link.
Thanks and Merry Christmas,
Rick
P.S. For every dollar Bread raises, it leverages $100 in terms of development aid and funding vital to the lives of poor and hungry people in our country and abroad.
I have no doubt that Bread for the World is a good cause although I don’t know how much of what is contributed goes to salaries and overhead for Bread World staffers. I also believe Steves is doing a very good deed when he contributes his products to this charity. The US has worthy causes too, involving people including children who have been victims of national disasters, disease, job layoffs , and neglect. Of course when the national media zooms in on the wealthy couple in Seattle, one a chiropractor, who have been milking our support systems, it makes our blood boil, reinforces certain politicians’ polemics about welfare, and undermines contributions to our own supremely needy. We each have favorite causes and we should support those we believe in most.