Arthur Simon tells the story of Bread for the World, a “citizens’ outcry against hunger,” as the ultimate insider. He was Bread’s founder, its first president from 1974 until his retirement in 1991 and after that its president emeritus.
The Rising of Bread for the World: An Outcry of Citizens Against Hunger also is Simon’s autobiography, a necessary ingredient if one is to fully understand the organization’s launch, focus and effectiveness in steadily helping curb hunger domestically and internationally.
Born the son of a Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor and publisher and his wife in Eugene, Ore., in 1930, Simon is the younger brother of the late Sen. Paul Simon of Illinois. Arthur’s pilgrimage led to the pastorate of Trinity Lutheran Church on New York’s densely populated, low-income Lower East Side, where dealing with the issues of poverty and hunger locally ultimately led him and others to launch Bread for the World nationally in 1974.
Bread became a citizens’ lobby that has influenced domestic and international hunger policies in the United States ever since. Simon carefully traces both Bread’s victories and its failures, but underscores the organization’s tenacity in seeking bipartisan support on behalf of the world’s needy. Nearing 80, Simon remains one of the foremost advocates of the cause.
The Rising of Bread for the World: An Outcry of Citizens Against Hunger by Arthur Simon was published in 2009 by Paulist Press (New York/Mahwah, N.J.).
