One hundred miles from the nearest road, in a settlement of 40 mud houses, the Rev. David Beckmann was reminded of the power the United States has to help others around the world.
In the small community of Mtimbi, Mozambique, the Lutheran minister met three women who were living, he said, because they received AIDS medication through a program funded by the U.S. government.
Over the years, Beckmann, who grew up in Lincoln, has worked for and seen the results of humanitarian aid in the United States and around the world. For his work to reduce poverty and hunger, individually and as director of Bread for the World, he has been named the 2010 World Food Prize Laureate.
Jo Luck, CEO of Heifer International, also was given the honor this year for her work to advocate for poverty-stricken people around the world. Heifer International provides gifts of livestock and plants, as well as education in sustainable agriculture, to financially disadvantaged families around the world.
Beckmann and Luck will be honored at an October ceremony in Des Moines.
The Iowa-based World Food Prize Foundation awards the international honor to recognize work done to improve the “quality, quantity or availability” of food worldwide.
In the past decade, federal money dedicated to poverty relief has tripled, federal money sent to Africa has quadrupled, and nutrition and food assistance programs for families in need has more than doubled, according to the foundation.
Both Bread for the World and Heifer International began as grassroots groups advocating for the poor and hungry. Both have grown into large organizations.
“These powerful networks link people together all around the globe in the cause of ending hunger,” said Frank Swoboda, World Food Prize Foundation spokesman.
Bread for the World, Beckmann said, is a “collective Christian voice” for hungry people around the world. The group has a network of member churches in the U.S., which he calls on to advocate for legislation that either increases money available to assistance programs or make those programs more effective.
“We help people who pray for people in need to also use the power they have as citizens of the United States to get our government to do some things that can provide help and opportunity to people in need,” he said.
The group works to educate its members about hunger-related issues before Congress and about the state of hunger and nutrition problems in this country and beyond. The needs and numbers of hungry people worldwide have increased during the recent global economic crisis, both Beckmann and Swoboda said.
Winning the World Food Prize, which comes with $250,000, is an opportunity to teach more people that progress has been made against hunger, poverty and disease, but more work needs to be done, Beckmann said.
Right now, he said, he is advocating for policy that would strengthen child nutrition programs in the United States. It would increase summer feeding programs for kids and improve the quality of school lunches.
“If we want to feed our kids, people who care about hungry kids need to let Congress know this is important,” he said.
Beckmann also is lobbying for legislation that he said would help foreign aid be used more effectively.
Letters to Congress work, he said. If enough people contact their senators and representatives, there could be fewer hungry American kids and better use of foreign aid money.
Hunger offends Nebraskans and Iowans, Beckmann said, because at its core, the people of this agricultural region understand farming and food.
“People in Nebraska understand that there is plenty of food. We do not have to let people go hungry,” he said.
That’s why, Beckmann said, he has been a natural leader of Bread for the World.
“It’s not an accident that a kid from Nebraska ended up being president of Bread for the World,” he said. “The people in the Midwest know the productivity of agriculture and are scandalized by hunger.”
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444-1310, elizabeth.ahlin@owh.com
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