Faith-Based Summits Aim To Make Poverty An Election-Year Issue

Religious leaders are holding interfaith Poverty Summits around Wisconsin in an effort to get politicians talking about poverty as an issue before the November election.

Among those planning to attend the upcoming summits is Rabbi Dan Danson of Wausau.

“We see it in the requests for emergency relief, in the use of food pantries. We see it in our members,” said Danson. “And we want to have this summit to be raising the issue and asking candidates who are running for office, ‘What’s your policy?’”

The Poverty Summits are sponsored in part by the Wisconsin Council of Churches. The council’s executive director, Reverend Scott Anderson of Sun Prairie, said he hopes to influence the November elections.

“This is a priority for the religious community, and the degree to which we get involved and make our voices heard will determine the outcome of, hopefully, a number of elections around the state,” said Anderson.

Anderson is harshly critical of Gov. Scott Walker’s refusal to expand Medicaid, as well as his proposal for drug testing food assistance recipients. Still, he insists that the Poverty Summits are nonpartisan.

“Food stamps was signed into law in the early ’70s by Republican President Richard Nixon. So there was a time in this country when meeting the needs of low-income families was not a partisan issue in the same way it is today,” said Anderson.

Danson said the goal is to get the attention of both parties.

“You need to be talking to people who are poor,” said Danson. “You need to be listening to their needs. You need to be hearing what they’re experiencing. You know, candidates change their minds, parties change their minds.”

The first Poverty Summit took place in Milwaukee in June. The final four summits take Sept. 23 in Appleton, Sept. 26 in Eau Claire, Sept. 30 in Madison, and Oct. 1 in Stevens Point.