By Elket Rodriguez 
Various faith leaders, advocates and community partners recently gathered in the Rio Grande Valley for a sacred and urgent conversation on hunger and our collective response as people of faith. A symposium rooted in proximity, incarnation and presence explored hunger advocacy not as an abstract policy exercise, but as a practice grounded in relationship. Rev. Eugene Cho lifted up the importance of being proximate in order to advocate faithfully, while Sr. Norma Pimentel spoke of a ministry of presence—both stressing that any response to hunger must be built on mutuality, dignity and shared humanity.
The realities shared were sobering. One in four children in the Rio Grande Valley —108,650 children, or 25.5%— is food-insecure. SNAP participation among children in the Valley reaches 43.9%, nearly double the rate in Texas (23.9%) and more than twice the national average (20%), with 187,909 children relying on this lifeline. These are not abstract figures; they reflect families, elders and children navigating hunger together and making impossible choices every day.
Hunger in the Valley is inseparable from poverty. Over the past year, 26.6% of people in the Rio Grande Valley have lived below the poverty line —nearly twice the statewide rate of 13.8%— representing approximately 1,376,002 people. Those present, including Caly Fernandez, executive director of the House of Love and Justice and Pastor Carlos Navarro of Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville, affirmed a shared calling to move beyond charity alone toward faithful, persistent advocacy.
Elket Rodriguez serves as Global Migration Advocate with CBF and Faith Works.