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With Congress now enjoying its annual recess and the media focused on the upcoming presidential election, it's an opportune time to remember that a hunger crisis is still gripping the world. While we have yet to see the full extent of the suffering, it is clear that our government's and other nations' responses to the hunger crisis have not been equal to the scale of the problem.

Here in North Carolina nearly one in eight North Carolina households suffers from food insecurity, defined as the inability to obtain adequate amounts of nutritious food to sustain an active and healthy life with dignity.

In the Bible, God talks more about helping the poor and hungry than any other topic. The United States is the world's largest food aid donor, and we should be proud of our nation's good works on behalf of the world's poor and hungry people -- including efforts to increase agricultural food yields and eradicate diseases such as smallpox and polio. Twenty-nine million more children in sub-Saharan Africa are in school than a decade ago. The United States is currently providing HIV/AIDS treatment for approximately 1.45 million men, women and children worldwide, allowing them to help build their communities and countries.

Yet, we can do more with what we are giving by simply ensuring that the aid we extend is better coordinated. Currently, U.S. global development programs are implemented by 12 departments, 25 different agencies and almost 60 government offices. This dated, spider's web of a system is ill-equipped to deal with the complex problems faced by the world today, much less the hunger crisis that is already affecting at least 36 countries.

A simple piece of legislation, passed by the House of Representatives and currently pending in the Senate, can bring coherence to our responses to challenges such as the hunger crisis. The Global Poverty Act builds on our record of success as a country committed to improving life for the world's poorest people.

It gives backbone to the commitment we made in 2000, along with more than 150 countries, to cut in half the number of people living on less than $1 a day by 2015. We are now at the halfway mark, and as Christians and as Americans we believe we need to work to strengthen our government's resolve and to keep the promises we made to the world's poor and hungry people.

If signed into law, the Global Poverty Act would, for the first time, make it official U.S. policy to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty. It does not establish any new foreign aid programs. Rather, it requires the president to develop and implement a coordinated strategy of U.S. aid, debt relief and trade policies.

This legislation emphasizes cooperation with other countries, international institutions, civil society groups and the private sector. Such cooperation is required to include measurable goals, benchmarks and timetables. The president will report back to Congress on the progress of the strategy.

Despite the fact that the Global Poverty Act was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, it still has to be brought to a full Senate vote. With the legislative session set to close this year on Sept. 26, our senators have been slow to join the 30 Republican and Democratic co-sponsors of the Global Poverty Act.

We encourage you to write or call North Carolina's senators -- Richard Burr and Elizabeth Dole -- to urge them to co-sponsor, support and do all that they can to make the Global Poverty Act a law of the land.

Harold Pitts is a member of Christ United Methodist Church and the Rev. Robert Herron attends Guilford Park Presbyterian Church. Both are members of Bread for the World.