As the 2008 presidential elections draw closer, David Beckmann and Bread for the World hope that the U.S. government provides more leadership in the fight against hunger.

Beckmann, founder of Bread for the World and a former World Bank economist, explained that today, hunger and poverty are much more important issues to American voters and he attributes part of that awareness to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. 

“Most voters have a sense that it is not smart to neglect misery,” he said at a lecture at Belmont about the intersection between faith, economics and solving world hunger.

“Most people do not think through the implications of their faith for politics or their profession,” Beckmann told the audience of more than 100 students, faculty and business professionals from the Nashville community.

While he believes it’s critical for the fight against hunger to continue in the next administration, he also believes that the Bush administration has been a strong force for change.

“George W. Bush has been a really good president for Africa,” Beckmann said, mentioning that the United States now provides twice as much for poverty reduction than it did in 2000.

Beckmann said in the last two decades, the number of people in the world living on less than one dollar per day has decreased from 1.5 billion to 1 billion. 

“I think its important for people to know the world is making progress against poverty, hunger and disease,” he said.  “The situation still is–but especially was–very grim.”

Beckmann serves as president of Bread for World, an organization dedicated to advocating solutions to world hunger.  Founded in 1972, Bread for the World is described on its Web site as “a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad.”

For Beckmann, substantial gains in the fight against hunger and poverty around the world can be attributed to God. “I think this is God. This is God moving in our history… on a scale that makes what happened at the Red Sea look like small potatoes,” he said. “This is something holy… this kind of liberation from desperation is really holy.”

Bread for the World will continue to focus on federal programs as an answer for hunger in the U.S. It advocates for food stamp programs and other similar initiatives.