The Urgency of Now: An Author Talk with David Beckmann

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David Beckmann, former Bread for the World president and World Food Prize laureate, discusses faith, the fight against poverty, and the urgency of the moment.

 After decades of progress against poverty, progress is grinding to a halt. Nearly 14,000 Mainers have lost food assistance since changes to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program took effect, including more than 4,300 children. In Portland, SNAP enrollment has fallen nearly 14 percent.

Against that backdrop, the Cathedral Church of St. Luke will host Rev. David Beckmann, one of the nation’s leading advocates for ending hunger and poverty, for “The Urgency of Now,” an author talk and conversation on Thursday, Sept. 17, at 6:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Beckmann has spent his career working to demonstrate that poverty is not inevitable. As president of Bread for the World for nearly three decades, he mobilized people of faith to advocate for changes in public policy that helped reduce hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world. His new book, “Poverty Abolitionists: Faith, Activism, and Hope for Difficult Times” (Bloomsbury, 2026), argues that much of that hard-won progress is now being reversed—and that people who care about poverty can help get it moving in the right direction again.

“Poverty is not inevitable. We have already shown that dramatic progress against poverty is possible,” Beckmann said. “The challenge now is to get that progress moving again. People of faith can help build the political will to make that happen.”

During his Portland talk, Beckmann will draw on lessons from decades of successful anti-poverty advocacy to examine what has worked, what is changing now and how people of all faiths and no-faith can respond. With midterm elections approaching, he will also discuss the importance of making poverty and hunger priorities in the decisions that voters ask of their elected leaders,

In “Poverty Abolitionists,” Beckmann draws on evidence, history and a lifetime of anti-poverty work to offer five essential insights and 10 strategies for building a movement to end poverty. The book calls on people who have a heart for those experiencing poverty and hope for positive social change to turn that concern into sustained action.

About David Beckmann

A former World Bank economist, Beckmann received the World Food Prize in 2010 for Bread for the World’s contribution to the reduction of hunger in Africa. He now leads the Circle of Protection, a coalition of Christian leaders and organizations advocating for people experiencing poverty, and serves as Dean’s Advisor for Political and Economic Justice at Virginia Theological Seminary.