A friend of mine asked me to write up a quick blurp on an award I had the honor of receiving recently. Its kinda fun writing about yourself in the third person, I’m including it here with some appropriate comments in (), so I dont get too big a head….
Long time Bread Activist Mike Hiland, was a corecipient of the Harvest of Hope award, given annually by the Oregon Faith Roundtable Against Hunger. He received the award for his decades of advocacy work (because he is really old) with Bread and for being the lead organizer for a recent Circle of Protection conference, held in Portland, which brought together many different groups around the issue of protecting the most vulnerable from deep budget cuts.
Mike was introduced by Matt Newell-Ching, Bread’s western regional organizer, who compared his work and the work of Bread activists to a pilot light, which stands steady and ready to serve (and doesnt know how to shut his big mouth), igniting a larger response, and does not flash bright then fade like a firework. The work to end hunger is something that continues over the long run. It combines the work of advocates for public policy with that of direct action, to do more than either can do alone.
The Oregon Faith Roundtable Against Hunger seeks to engage diverse religious communities throughout the state, including direct service agencies, in order to develop solutions to the root causes of hunger through education and public policy advocacy
