ELCA Updates

A group of ELCA leaders met with staff of the U.S. State Department Feb. 1-2 to help make nutrition a priority and support the “1,000 Day Movement” — an international initiative to promote maternal and child nutrition in the 1,000 days between pregnancy and age 2. At the meeting ELCA members, along with other religious leaders, learned about the government’s work on nutrition in the United States and overseas.

“The death of a child is tragic, and the permanent (cognitive and physical delay) of millions of children every year is preventable,” said the Rev. Jessica Crist, bishop of the ELCA Montana Synod, who attended the meeting.

Crist said the movement brings together public and private, faith-based and secular organizations “to advocate for focused attention on the first 1,000 days of life. Simple, inexpensive measures like prenatal nutrition, breast feeding, clean water and hand washing can make the difference in the lives of millions of children worldwide. And the difference is not only personal — it affects the whole society.”

The State Department has $95 million budgeted for this work in countries that have agreed to make maternal and infant nutrition a priority, said Crist. “In contrast, Americans spend $1 billion on Super Bowl snacks in one night.”

Organized by Bread for the World, the meeting at the State Department included conversations with staff of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Global Health Initiative and the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Other ELCA members at the meeting were Sharon Heck, Whittier, Calif.; Gaylord Thomas, Chicago; and staff from Women of the ELCA and the ELCA Washington Office.

Women of the ELCA passed a resolution at their 2011 convention that commits the organization to supporting the 1,000 Day Movement. “Women of the ELCA has been working with Bread for the World in leading an ecumenical effort to assist Christians to live out the 1,000 Day commitment,” said Inez Torres Davis, director for justice, Women of the ELCA.