Faith in Action


Angela Rupchock-Schafer | April 9, 2013

CWS's Angela Rupchock-Schafer met with her elected officials at Ecumenical Advocacy Days 2013 to speak up for food justice.

CWS’s Angela Rupchock-Schafer met with her elected officials at Ecumenical Advocacy Days 2013 to speak up for food justice.

The famed cherry blossoms aren’t blooming quite yet. But that didn’t stop some 800 Christian advocates from meeting in Washington, D.C., for Ecumenical Advocacy Days. I was proud to be one of them. The energy and excitement for food justice was electrifying all weekend and being a part of that was a blessing.

We were honored at EAD to listen to Representative Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) speak and share about his push to #endhungernow.  “Nothing changes unless good people come together to demand change,” he told us. And we listened, because today we went up to Capitol Hill to tell Congress how important food justice is to us as people of faith.

Ecumenical Advocacy Days is a place for Christians of many denominations to come together and speak with a strong, unified voice. I spent the day walking all over the Hill, sharing with my Representative and Senator’s offices how vital SNAP (food stamps) is for vulnerable single mothers and children. How the 1,000 days window between pregnancy and age 2 is a critical window to improve childhood nutrition. Why reauthorizing the Farm Bill is so important to farmers in the U.S. and much, much more.

My feet are killing me. Lesson learned – don’t wear heels when walking on marble. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Because being silent is agreeing with the status quo. The fact that there is so much hunger in the world is shameful and the gospels call us to act. As Representative McGovern told us, “Faith isn’t just about ritual. It is about action.”

Today we put our faith into action. And I couldn’t feel more empowered… or more ready to keep up the good fight for food justice.

Angela Rupchock-Schafer, Social Media Manager, CWS