Bread for the World Advocacy Summit, Pt. 1: Your Stories Matter…Even in DC

Kamatara Johnson
2 days ago
3 min read

Earlier this month, I ventured to Washington, DC to join our partner organization Bread for the World (Bread). It was a joy to help celebrate their 50th anniversary, as Circles USA has long stood as a peer advocate to end childhood hunger in the US and around the world. This convening also marked Bread’s 2025 Advocacy Summit, an occasion to support community leaders from all 50 states and Puerto Rico to connect with our leaders in the Congress and the Senate.

I hadn’t been to DC in 30 years; and, like most people in the United States, I have never spoken with my representatives…ever. I have been inspired by our Circles community members who have meaningful relationships with their policymakers and speak up regularly on the issues that impact those experiencing poverty. It was definitely my turn to step up.

Bread hosted over 400 people at its Advocacy Summit this June and equipped us with inspiration, information, and connections. We learned the talking points to share as we advocated for saving SNAP and WIC, along with joining global support for the US Agency for International Development (USAID): an imperilled resource which, during 2023-24, disbursed roughly $21B in federal health funding. We spoke up for the elderly, children, those with disabilities, vets, and people experiencing poverty, especially food insecurity.

Each state delegation was scheduled to meet with each and every representative office: sometimes with the actual legislator, but more often with the staffer, which is how things get done in DC. Much appreciation to all the young adults with razor sharp acumen and a pulse on the nation, listening to dozens upon dozens of people day after day and then conveying those demands to the representatives.

With Bonita Thomas! Both exhausted after a LONG day of advocating with representatives, over 13,000 steps that day!

Inspirational choir to nourish the soul before going out to support legislation that nourishes the body

Throughout all the meetings I experienced, I noticed that our policymakers and their staff were most engaged when people shared their stories. A college student from Puerto Rico shared with my New Mexico representative the difficulty of receiving their version of SNAP, and of not having enough to eat on the weekends—but feeling grateful to even eat one meal a day on the weekdays. Hunger on college campuses in the 50 states is equally as prevalent, with 3 out of 5 students reporting food or housing insecurity in 2025, as is hunger for families and individuals who cannot keep up with the high cost of groceries.

I shared my personal story of following the social narrative in our country: work hard, get the scholarship, go to college, get married, get a great job, and live the American Dream. I did all of that to become a teacher, married another teacher, and promptly became the working poor. When our first child was born, WIC was absolutely essential to support our food budget for the nutrition and wellbeing of my family. I shudder to think what our lives would have been like without that support in a time of need. And that was 24 years ago. Today, roughly 13.7% of Americans in this volatile economy need this critical support, as opposed to 10.7% in 2001.

Systems change is people change…it’s all about relationships and sharing our stories with each other.

Sharing our personal stories—how these proposed cuts impact our children, our neighbors, and ourselves—is the most powerful persuasion possible. It connects the mind to the heart, the facts to the people, the policymaker to the lived experience. While a lot of folks may think our representatives are cold-hearted or only care about money or big business, my experience is that they do care about their constituents. State-level government is where we can access the biggest opportunity for systems changes. And remember, systems change is people change…it’s all about relationships and sharing our stories with each other.

So I’m grateful for this powerful experience of being in DC, meeting with my New Mexico representatives who are fighting the good fight as much as they possibly can for the people who need the most support in this great nation of ours. Our stories matter to them. Our stories fuel them up to keep going even in the face of what feels like utter lunacy and futility. It gives me hope that We the People—especially the people of Circles USA— still have representative voices in DC…and allies in our fight to end poverty in our lifetime.

Stay tuned for Pt. 2, where I'll discuss partnerships and coalition building for effective change.

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