Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The United States has not made any sustained progress towards eradicating poverty since the 1960s and early 1970s when the poverty rate was cut in half, one of the leading anti-hunger and poverty advocates told an audience at the National Press Club Monday.

David Beckmann, speaking at a luncheon said, “If countries as different as Bangladesh, Brazil and Britain can reduce poverty, it’s clearly possible in the USA.”

Beckmann, an economist and ordained Lutheran minister who has been president of Bread for the World since 1991, argued, “As a nation, we have opportunities to moderate what the economy is doing to hungry and poor people.”

“In August, Congress provided needed financial support to state governments, partly to reduce teacher lay-offs, but they decided to pay for it by trimming future funding for food stamps by $12 billion,” Beckmann said.

“Congress is coming back into session today, and the Child Nutrition Act expires on Sept. 30. This is a clear opportunity for Congress and the people to reduce hunger among children.”

Beckmann outlined three hunger issues for the U.S. government to concentrate on–helping poor farmers produce more food, specifically tackling malnutrition among children; making foreign aid a more effective way to reduce poverty; and providing tax-credits to poor working households.

Beckmann praised the present policies saying, “The Obama administration, to their great credit, is leading an international response to the increase in world hunger.”

“They are using a relatively small amount of U.S. money to leverage much bigger investments from other nations around the world. But Congress is not now on track to approve the funding the president has requested,” he said.

“The administration is moving forward with reform, but slowly, and they may merge development programs more fully into programs that serve our own short-term interests,” he noted, adding, “This is bad idea.”

“I know a young mother who is working two part-time jobs,” Beckmann said. “She has a 3-year-old boy. She used her tax rebate last year to start training as a dental hygienist. But the tax provisions that helped her last year need to be renewed,” he argued.

“We do not now have enough political oomph to achieve the changes for hungry and poor people that we should,” Beckmann said. “So I am calling on people, especially people who believe in God, to help change the politics of hunger.”

Beckmann in June this year was awarded the World Food Prize, which was established in 1986 and recognizes the efforts of non-governmental organizations in mobilizing and empowering people to end hunger around the world.

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