Give generously, give wisely.

Amen to that! I couldn’t agree more and I suspect the majority here do.

I couldn't have said this better myself!
Thank you, Carol.

I support and volunteer at a local food bank and certainly see the need. But I like the hands on giving to a local area because Rick's right no one should go hungry. The volunteering is tiring, on my feet a lot, but it's a good tiring and I get a lot of smiles that make it worthwhile!

And I'm sure there is a need for some lobbying, also.

Everyone have a good day.

We agree. Besides supporting our local food bank, we give on a monthly basis to CRS for clean water worldwide.

... room to debate whether using money for lobbying vs. really feeding the hungry is the best strategy.....

Come on, are we just looking for something to nit-pick about? How much does it cost to send a blast email on a server that you own and control? I get solicited every day. I have more faith in the Steves' solicitation than many of "cancer" solicitions I have received. I agree you need to make informed decisions. But Yes and No is easy to do.

" ... room to debate whether using money for lobbying vs. really feeding the hungry is the best strategy.....

Come on, are we just looking for something to nit-pick about? How much does it cost to send a blast email on a server that you own and control?"

I believe that Carol was not talking about Rick Steve's email, but rather about Bread for the World being a lobbying organization working to get legislators and world leaders to do more to end hunger in the world.

Nothing wrong with that, either!

"Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime."

But right now there is such a dire need in South Sudan I would look for the NGO that is most effective at getting food into this troubled region, and into the hands of the starving.

Of course, that assumes that there are fish to be caught.

Charity Navigator is a good tool to research various charities and look at financial and other metrics. It's understandable to want to make the most difference with your limited resources, and to select charities that are successful, accountable, and spend the majority of funding fulfilling their missions. Its rating methodology can easily be found on the main page:

Bread for the World rating (as an example)
https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=5376

I don't see lobbying and feeding the hungry as independent from each other, or somehow opposed. Lobbying and targeting one's efforts to attract the highest resources is like having a large megaphone that a single individual would be hard pressed to compete with.

We are very active financial & time-based in charities that we've researched.

I'll also mention another option that combines travel & charity work. My former manager recently took a trip with Tauck where they spent one day of their trip focusing on helping a local charity team in South America as a traveling group.