Federal funding cuts decried during Presbyterian Advocacy Hour focused on hunger
Viewers urged to find ways to support hunger justice organizations and oppose cuts
LOUISVILLE — Although federal funding cuts have negatively impacted some international and U.S. programs dedicated to alleviating hunger and food insecurity, there are ways that Presbyterians and other allies can show their support for justice and advocate for change.
That’s one of the takeaways from this week’s Presbyterian Advocacy Hour, featuring representatives from the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP), its global solidarity collective, and two PHP partners: Soul Fire Farm in upstate New York and Hope Restoration South Sudan.
The online discussion took place as some organizations that serve the marginalized are grappling with cuts by the Trump administration.
Viewers who have concerns about cutbacks to life-sustaining programs can make their concerns known to Congress. One way to do that is through Action Alerts from the Office of Public Witness, which has been calling for the restoration of foreign aid.
“While a new administration has the right to review existing policies, halting nearly all humanitarian and development assistance in the process is causing widespread harm,” the alert notes. “Millions of lives are at risk as programs that provide food, medical care, and support for peace and stability are suddenly cut off.”
With so much happening, “it's good to educate ourselves,” said Susuyu Lassa, Soul Fire Farm’s partnership coordinator, who outlined some of the ways that farmers, farmworkers, and food assistance are being impacted or threatened. “May our strength be strengthened during this time of intense manufactured scarcity and fear in our communities.”
Lassa was one of the featured speakers during the April 23 episode of the Advocacy Hour web series that’s being led by OPW in collaboration with other ministries. Each month, it focuses on a different advocacy topic, offering information and resources.
PHP took the lead during the most recent installment, which included spiritual grounding by staffer Jessica Maudlin, followed by speaker presentations, breakout room discussion, and advocacy tips. OPW representatives also participated.
The first presenter was Angelina Jial, founder and executive director of Hope Restoration South Sudan, a non-governmental organization that empowers women and girls through gender-based violence prevention and other efforts. Its guiding principle is faithfulness rooted in compassion, justice and solidarity with the most vulnerable people.
Lately, Hope Restoration has been affected by the Trump administration’s decision to slash funding for U.S. development and humanitarian assistance abroad.
The organization recently learned that it had lost funding from the USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance for a gender-based domestic violence (GBV) project.
“Staff that were in that project had to lose (their) job,” Jial said. “At times, we look at it as one person losing (their) job. But in my country, one person (tends) to support five families, so technically, a lot of families have suffered … and the GBV services, which are so critical that were being administered to the survivors, they had to lose it. We could not continue with (the) operation and such people are going to suffer for a very long time.”
When funding is scarce, women and girls disproportionately bear the brunt. They are at risk of gender-based violence and forced marriages, including child marriage, and exploitation, Jial said.
“When you have a girl child in the house, you definitely have a commodity … for sale for the benefit of the other children in the family, so technically,” a lot of girls “will not be going to school,” she said.
The loss of critical funding to community organizations also can lead to increases in hunger and malnutrition, community destabilization, the undermining of peace efforts, and surges in migration by people trying to avoid dying from starvation, Jial said.
Next to speak was Lassa of Soul Fire Farm, which is described on its website as “an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm and training center dedicated to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system.”
“We raise and distribute life-giving food,” Lassa explained. “We equip the rising generation of BIPOC farmers through our programming, and we mobilize communities to work towards food and land sovereignty.”
Soul Fire Farm hasn’t been affected in a major way by the changes in the funding landscape, largely because of “dedicated and strategic fundraising and development work” by staff, Lassa said. “We really do seek relationships with funders and with institutions that are values aligned and with institutions that are willing to deeply interrogate their own motivations for investing in frontline organizations like ours.”
While Soul Fire Farm is OK, some other organizations with diversity, equity and inclusion components have lost vital funding, Lassa said, mentioning the Natural Resources Conversation Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Lassa also noted that funds made possible through the Inflation Reduction Act to assist socially-disadvantaged farmers have been frozen, she said.
Later, Lassa spoke of farmers who’ve taken on costs upfront, expecting reimbursement from the USDA, being “left flailing,” and although court action may help, the outcome is “left to be seen whether or not these contracts will be honored for farmers.”
Lassa also discussed potential cuts to SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as congressional Agriculture Committee members look for ways to make $230 billion in reductions as part of budget reconciliation efforts in Washington. “We've become aware very quickly that SNAP funding is a key target,” Lassa said. (See related Action Alert from OPW.)
Later, discussing advocacy, Lassa offered several suggestions, including doing collaborative fundraising and offering gifts to groups that have been affecting by funding freezes. Policy advocacy, such as supporting the proposed Honor Farmer Contracts Act, and immigrants rights activism also were mentioned.
Andrew Kang Bartlett, associate for national hunger concerns, noted that food justice organizations are being hit by cuts at the national level and urged viewers to support groups in their own communities.
Catherine Gordon, OPW representative for international issues, noted the importance of being persistent when it comes to advocacy. “Even if you feel like you're not being heard, you need to keep contacting Congress and make your presence known.”
Jial struck a similar note when discussing advocacy, noting that it’s not a one-time thing.
“You have to keep doing it over and over,” she said. “You might not see the change right now, but it will come with time. Then we also have collaboration, partnering across sectors, borders, communities for greater impact because at the end of the day, it's a joint effort.”
Sign up for the series of Presbyterian Advocacy Hours. Future topics include public education (May), Israel/Palestine (June) and community organizing (July).
The Presbyterian Hunger Program is one of the Compassion, Peace and Justice ministries of the Interim Unified Agency of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The Presbyterian Office of Public Witness (OPW) is the public policy information and advocacy office of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
You may freely reuse and distribute this article in its entirety for non-commercial purposes in any medium. Please include author attribution, photography credits, and a link to the original article. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeratives 4.0 International License.
