ELCA Supports Hunger Relief Act, Increase in U.S. Minimum Wage

CHICAGO (ELCA)-- Earning minimum wage in the United States puts millions of workers and their children in limbo -- making too much to receive assistance and making too little to survive, said Kay A. Bengston, assistant director for public policy advocacy, Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA), Washington, D.C.
LOGA called on Congress to pass the Hunger Relief Act and the Food Stamps Outreach and Research for Kids (FORK) Act this year, and to raise the minimum wage one dollar over the next two years. LOGA is the federal public policy advocacy office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
"Our congregations and agencies are doing what they can to provide food for hungry people, but these efforts are inadequate," said Bengston. "The amount of food provided is often insufficient and the frequency of visits by a single family to a food pantry is often limited."
Bengston said she heard several related stories from ELCA pastors. "One of our Lutheran pastors who is also a nurse provides health care to families who come to a local soup kitchen. One mother confided that she is very concerned about her child's lead level. The mother has found her child licking ash trays because she is so hungry," she said.
"Others tell us that families coming to their soup kitchens are often paying 85 to 90 percent of their income for housing and have little money left to buy food," said Bengston.
"Work at low wages has not necessarily made children in families better off economically. The cost of food, housing, child care and transportation is likely to be more than their income," she said.
The ELCA Churchwide Assembly adopted a statement on economic life, "Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All," in August 1999.
"The statement raises the importance of assisting working families who are struggling on very low wages," said Bengston. "Attending to their needs is critical to their personal dignity and individual well being."
"Poverty is a crisis of the whole human community, not only of those who are poor or vulnerable," she said. "It is the responsibility of the whole human community to address this problem, not just of those who choose to give to churches and charities for this purpose."
"The current vibrant economy has benefitted a significant number of families. Childhood poverty is down," said Bengston. "But, unfortunately, the depth of poverty has increased among those struggling at the bottom of the economic ladder."
"A one-dollar increase in the minimum wage would mean an additional $2,000 per year for minimum-wage earners working full time," she added.
The Hunger Relief Act has been the focus of Bread for the World's 2000 campaign, "A Fair Share: Working to End Hunger." Bread for the World is a nonpartisan organization of 44,000 Christians who lobby Congress and the administration on public policies affecting hunger and poverty.
"As much as we'd like to think that ours is a generous society, the fact is that the richest country in the world does less than any other developed nation to combat pervasive hunger," said the Rev. David M. Beckmann, an ELCA pastor and president of Bread for the World.
"Low-income working people in the United States should not be forced to live with the persistent threat of hunger. The Hunger Relief Act would extend food stamp benefits to more hungry families," said Beckmann.
"One full-time minimum-wage worker earns only $10,712 annually -- falling $3,000 below the poverty line for a family of three and $348 below the poverty line for a family of two," he added.

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