WASHINGTON (RNS) Members of President Obama’s domestic team addressed more than 1,000 Christian progressives at an anti-poverty meeting Monday (April 27), asking for their help to accomplish the president’s agenda.
“It is shameful that we live in a country where hundreds of thousands of kids experience hunger over the course of the year and there’s no reason why we can’t address that,” said Martha Coven, a White House poverty expert, who drew applause during a panel discussion at the Mobilization to End Poverty hosted by the social justice organization Sojourners.
Coven, who directs the White House Office of Mobility and Opportunity, thanked the crowd for its support of Obama’s proposed budget that includes programs to help first-time mothers and combat child abuse and neglect.
Van Jones, a White House special adviser on “green jobs,” said the president’s plan for increased employment in jobs such as solar panel installment will help employ those adversely affected by the current economy and address global warming. But he said calls to Congress are needed for such plans to take hold.
“We’ve got to be able to go back to our colleagues at the White House and tell them that help is on the way, that poverty is not a second-tier or third-tier issue … for people of faith,” he said.
Joshua DuBois, executive director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, said the president views religious and other community organizations as co-laborers in efforts to increase affordable health care and give more children access to quality education.
“He knows … we can’t solve these problems in Washington alone,” he said, citing Obama’s past role as a community organizer.
In a brief videotaped greeting, the president thanked those gathered for their efforts to advocate for those in need.
“My administration is working to match your service with a commitment of our own that the least of these will not be forgotten,” Obama said in an apparent reference to the Gospel of Matthew.