Recovery from the financial crisis and recession has begun. But way down at the bottom of the world economy, it’s hard to see the sun breaking through yet. More than a billion people suffer from hunger, an increase of more than a hundred million in two years. The number of people in extreme poverty has also increased, reversing decades of progress. Global warming and growing global demand for food could lead to further increases in global hunger and poverty.

In the third quarter of 2009, the U.S. economy posted its first quarter of growth in two years.  Yet the unemployment rate is higher than it’s been in a quarter of a century. In church basements, food pantries haven’t been able to restock their shelves quickly enough, and the number of people receiving government food assistance is at an all-time high.

At the same time, we have exceptional opportunities right now to change policies to provide help and opportunity to hungry and poor people. It’s obvious to U.S. voters and political leaders that many families have been driven into poverty by factors beyond their control. As millions of Americans lost their jobs or saw their work hours reduced, both the Bush and Obama administrations worked with Congress to increase food assistance for people in need.

As we dig ourselves out of this recession, we have an opportunity to put in place policies that reduce inequality and invest in the potential of all Americans. Our nation and world will be different after this recession. The 2010 Hunger Report, A Just and Sustainable Recovery, lays out a strategy for economic recovery that will lead to sustained progress against hunger and poverty.

In 2010, there will be a huge debate about tax policy.  Many provisions of the tax code will expire. This report argues for tax policies to provide low-income families with the same benefits that middle- and upper-income families receive. It also outlines pro-poor policies in the health, education, housing, and transportation sectors.

A Just and Sustainable Recovery focuses on the opportunity to create new and good jobs by tackling the looming crisis of climate change. The scientific community has reached a clear consensus that climate change is real and occurring at an alarming rate. Bread for the World Institute staff have traveled to areas of the world already affected by climate change, talking with smallholder farmers and researchers who are monitoring changes in weather patterns and crop production. Climate change is not a future threat in these places; it is unfolding in real time.

Continued progress against world hunger depends on aggressively confronting climate change. This report takes up greening the world economy and why this is a sound investment. Here in the United States, climate change can be managed in a way that is good for the economy and good for poor people by providing jobs in sectors that have been hammered during the recession.

It may be difficult to keep this in mind right now, but for most of the last half-century there has been slow, steady progress against hunger. Fifty years ago, one in three people in the world was chronically hungry. Today, despite the recent setback, the numbers are closer to one in seven. That’s truly a remarkable achievement.

As a believer, I see this wonderful liberation from hunger and poverty as an experience of our loving God moving in our own history. I also know that people like Bread for the World members have helped by urging their members of Congress to support measures to reduce hunger and poverty in our country and worldwide.

President Obama’s pledge to end child hunger in the United States by 2015 and his Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative are impressive early displays of his commitment to fight hunger. But the troubled economy and other problems pull our elected officials in ever shifting directions, so it will be up to us to help President Obama and Congress maintain a focus on reducing hunger and poverty.

This is a pivot point—a time to change history for hungry people.

Rev. David Beckmann
President, Bread for the World and Bread for the World Institute