New Book From Rev. David Beckmann Calls For New Age Of Anti-Poverty Activism

The Rev. David Beckmann has spent a lifetime fighting against hunger and poverty as the former president of Bread For The World and the 2010 winner of the World Food Prize. But in his new book, “Poverty Abolitionists: Faith, Activism, and Hope for Difficult Times,” Beckmann calls for a newly partisan approach to meeting what he sees as a crisis for the neediest Americans as a result of the policies of the Trump administration. Beckmann, a Lutheran minister, also has launched a new newsletter. Beckmann discussed the book, which publishes on Thursday, in a recent conversation with Spotlight; the transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What inspired you to write Poverty Abolitionists and how does it differ from your previous work?

Well, 2025 was a really terrible year for poor people. The world has made spectacular progress against poverty in the last several decades. In the U.S., the progress has been more gradual—dramatic progress at the end of the ‘60s and slower progress since then, but still substantial. Even during COVID, in the first year of the Biden administration, the Child Tax Credit and other programs reduced child poverty to 5%, the lowest level in history. So, we know we don't have to put up with it.

But in the first year of the Trump administration, they devastated international aid, which led other countries to do the same. The tariffs are bad for poor people everywhere. And then on domestic poverty, the Big Beautiful Bill made momentous cuts in food assistance and health assistance. We know that already, 4 million people have lost SNAP, and 3 million people have lost health insurance. We may never have data on hunger for the U.S. again, but it seems clear to me that poverty is increasing, really for the first time in a long time.

So, I wrote this book to talk about 10 effective ways that people who care can push back. And much of it is pushing back against MAGA, but there are other things that we can do together that will lead to a restoration of progress against poverty and hunger. I'm a preacher and I think God wants this to happen, so we should get on with it.

Spotlight gives people really good information about what's happening across the country, what works, what doesn't work, what's the data. But we've got to push politically. Not everybody can do that; people have different roles. But there's got to be a big surge in the political push to overcome poverty, to make it a priority for the nation. And that's not going to happen unless we also manage to put brakes on the president.

I want to follow up on that. David. Having known you for a while, this feels like it's more of a partisan book for you.

Oh, it is more partisan, yes (laughs).  And I've worked in a bipartisan way. I worked at Bread for the World for 29 years and in that period of time, I really avoided partisanship. If I gave political contributions, I gave $500 to a Republican, $500 to a Democrat, the members of Congress who worked with us. But, you know, Bob Dole was on our board for something like 20 years. He was a major donor for Bread for the World. But the Republicans have changed, and certainly MAGA is not Bob Dole or George Bush. And I think just realistically, we need to be political. We need to be partisan. I think there are a lot of Republicans and Independents who care about poverty and if they care about poverty, it may make sense for them too to vote for Democrats until we can put some restraint on the president. If the Republican leadership gets beat a couple of times, they'll moderate. If they're not winning the voters, then they'll be less subservient to the president.

You said the book goes over 10 strategies. Why don't you give us an example of just a couple of those.

Well, just briefly, I'll give you a couple. One is legislative advocacy. I'm really struck that it still sometimes works—for example, on WIC funding on a bipartisan basis with support from the White House. Unbelievable. In 2025, we got a big, half-a billion-dollar increase in WIC to fund improvements that were made during the Biden era. And again this year, I think it was another half billion dollars. I think it helped that there's this really strong bipartisan WIC coalition that's worked for years. It's a good program. Some of the groups like Bread for the World have strong grassroots who can work from the base, encouraging members of the Appropriations Committee to sign off on the money for WIC. On foreign aid, in the appropriations bills in February, Congress included $19 billion more than the president had requested. And they were very specific about restoring money for AIDS relief, malaria, humanitarian assistance. So, I think, legislative advocacy can work even now.

But I think that more than before, people who care about poverty also need to be active in politics. In particular, our community isn’t much better than the rest of America in that very few people really volunteer for campaigns; like 4% of Americans. And the Federal Election Commission data shows that only 2% of Americans give more than a $100 a year to candidates, PACs, or parties. We leave it to the billionaires. We leave it to very wealthy people to fund the process by which we decide who's going to govern the country.

Relatively small contributions are increasing, but it's incumbent on all of us to play a role. I think it's a reasonable goal to give 1% of your income to candidates or party organizations that will push our country in the right direction.

How would you advise candidates to talk about poverty? Particularly if you're trying to persuade those in the MAGA community and those who may be undecided. There are concerns about fraud, there are concerns about government programs that don't work. How would you advise candidates to approach this issue?

Clearly progressives need to be concerned about fraud. I think there's way more fraud among people filing income tax returns than there is for people who are trying to get SNAP or Medicaid. So, we have to make that case first. If there is fraud, or if there is waste, if some programs aren't working, we have to be at the front of the queue to get those programs fixed or eliminated or move the money to programs that work. Actually, since the ‘90s, Democrats and Republicans have been working together to restructure the safety net programs to put more emphasis on work, more emphasis on children. During that period, I think we've cut child poverty in half because of those changes in the programs.

I think it helps if you have good bipartisan collaboration. You do bring different sensitivities to these things, and we should be completely open to that. But it’s also a matter of values. Nobody wants kids to starve. But for a lot of people, it's not at the top of their priorities. And for those of us for whom it is at the top of our priorities, we just need to push and organize. I don't think it's just a matter of talking differently. It's organizing. And also, this thing about giving money to candidates is really important.

You mentioned earlier that you're a minister. What's the role of religion and churches and in this movement that you’re looking to re-energize?

There's a segment of the religious community that is very much committed to poverty reduction. If you read the Hebrew Scriptures or the New Testament, there are good grounds for caring about the widow, the orphan, and the alien. But since I retired from Bread in 2020, I've had time to think about things more broadly. And in part of that, I focused on surveys and sociological data on the connection between how people experience God and practice religion and what policies they support. And what's clear is that we need to reform American religion and spirituality.

I'm a Christian pastor, but more than 50% of white Americans voted for Donald Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024. I lobby Congress with a lot of church leaders. But much of Christianity is opposed to food stamps and foreign aid. It's also true that about half the people who believe in God think God is more judgmental than forgiving. And it's people who experience God as forgiving us and feel the cosmos is friendly to them who are much more inclined to support policies that help poor people.

It also helps to go to church (laughs). There's an abundance of data that shows that if you join a religious community, you're happier, healthier, more civically engaged. But then you have to be careful because some churches are white nationalist churches or churches where there's a lot of that kind of religion. Or judgmental religion. So, you want to pick a loving and justice-oriented church that encourages people to be active in trying to serve the least of these and supports the spirituality that keeps people going.

Finally, David, beyond a purely moral sense, how does reducing poverty benefit society as a whole?

It's a big chunk of the society that's poor or near poor. We focus on people under the poverty line, but then there's so many people who are close to the poverty line, and at that level, they bounce in and out of poverty after a divorce or the car breaks down. And in many, many families, somebody in the family is under the poverty line. And the damage that poverty does, especially for children, can be permanent. And it clearly makes our country less productive and more violent, because we put up with that because we don't treat each other decently. And so, I think it just makes good sense.