The Hunger and Advocacy Highlights of 2025-26
In a year when many of our neighbors have felt anxious, unseen, unheard, or afraid, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Arizona has continued to live into a simple but powerful conviction: faith belongs in the public square when our neighbors are hungry, unhoused, sick, excluded, or pushed to the margins.
As Lutherans, we are called to strive for justice and peace in all the earth—not as a slogan, but as a way of being church together. Advocacy is one expression of neighbor love. It is how we bring our baptismal promises into conversations about hunger, housing, health care, voting, immigration, public schools, and the dignity of every person created in the image of God.
This year, LAMA’s work was guided by the 2026 policy priorities discerned by the LAMA Policy Council: food insecurity and the root causes of hunger; civic engagement, including support for public schools and informed Christian engagement; and health care, with a focus on fair and equal access for all God’s people.
Below are highlights of a remarkable year of advocacy and engagement in the Grand Canyon Synod.
Grand Canyon Synod Hunger Leaders Network
The Grand Canyon Synod Hunger Leaders Network continued to meet monthly for education, conversation, encouragement, and action. Since June 2021, this network has helped congregations better understand hunger and poverty, share practical ministry ideas, connect with ELCA World Hunger resources, and advocate for policies that address hunger’s root causes.
Our goal remains: one Hunger Leader from every congregation in the synod. This year, 101 hunger leaders from 61 congregations participated in the network, helping connect congregational ministries across Arizona, the Navajo Nation, southern Nevada, and parts of Utah.
Highlights of the GCS Hunger Leaders Network year include:
Continued promotion of ELCA World Hunger resources, including Advent, Lent, Domestic Hunger Grants, Daily Bread Grants, and other churchwide opportunities to support hunger ministries.
Promotion of ELCA World Hunger’s 2027 Domestic Hunger Grant application cycle, including letters of inquiry due July 1, 2026, with priority focus areas including food security, clean water, housing, job access, human rights, and policy change.
Leadership and participation in the 2026 40-40-40 Lenten Challenge, rooted in Matthew 25 and the theme, “Lord, When Did We See You?” The challenge invited participants to daily devotion, daily learning, daily action, and daily donation in support of ELCA World Hunger.
Continued connection with coalition partners including Arizona Faith Network, Bread for the World (including the BFW Advocacy Summit in Washington, DC), Arizona Food Bank Network, ELCA World Hunger, Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest, and congregational hunger ministries across the synod.
Ongoing storytelling about local hunger ministries and congregational responses to food insecurity, poverty, housing instability, and the needs of vulnerable neighbors.
The 2026 Lenten Challenge invited the five ELCA Region 2 synods—Sierra Pacific, Southwest California, Pacifica, Grand Canyon, and Rocky Mountain—to join in a friendly challenge for a good cause, with a goal of individuals representing 50 congregations per synod participating.
LAMA Liaison Roundtable
The LAMA Liaison Roundtable continued to meet monthly by Zoom, bringing together congregational advocates for education, faith-rooted reflection, current events, encouragement, and action.
These gatherings remain one of LAMA’s most important ministries. They help participants ask: What does it mean to be Lutheran in this moment? How do our social teachings guide us? How do we speak faithfully, pastorally, and prophetically in a polarized public square?
Topics this year included Arizona State Budget Negotiations; SAVE America Act; Faith in Wartime; ICE and Immigration; Story Telling and Writing Advocacy Op-Eds; Political Violence; Faith & Civic Life Social Statement; and H.R. 1 Economic Impact, including hunger and poverty, health care, public education, voting and civic engagement, immigration, Christian engagement in public life, legislative advocacy, and preparation for Lutheran Day at the Legislature.
Our goal remains: one LAMA Liaison from every congregation in Arizona.
Lutheran Day at the Legislature
LAMA hosted its 5th annual Lutheran Day at the Legislature on Monday, February 23, 2026. 185 advocates from 28 legislative districts gathered at the Arizona State Capitol for a day of advocacy, learning, worshipful public witness, and conversation with elected officials.
The 2026 gathering focused on LAMA’s policy priorities: food insecurity, civic engagement, health care, and the public systems that protect the dignity and well-being of our neighbors.
Speakers for the 2026 rally included Will Humble, Executive Director of the Arizona Public Health Association; Angie Rodgers, Deputy Director of the Arizona Department of Economic Security; Sen. T.J. Shope; Sen. Flavio Bravo; Connie Phillips, President and CEO of Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest; and Bishop Deborah Hutterer of the Grand Canyon Synod.
Participants heard from leaders, met with legislators, toured the Capitol, were introduced from the House and Senate galleries, and practiced advocacy as a public expression of faith. The day also included training and preparation opportunities, including Request to Speak training and Lutheran Advocacy Day preparation.
Congregational Engagement
LAMA continued to visit, encourage, and learn from congregations across the Grand Canyon Synod. This year, LAMA was invited to share information, preaching, teaching, advocacy training, and conversation with 10 congregations and many ministry partners, including King of Glory, Tempe; Bethlehem, Mesa; Christ, Sedona; Foothills, Tucson; Love of Christ, Mesa; and Sierra Evangelical, Sierra Vista.
These visits continue to be among the most meaningful parts of LAMA’s work. Across Arizona, congregations are feeding neighbors, welcoming immigrants, supporting unhoused families, offering letters and testimony, registering voters, caring for children and older adults, and showing up where public policy meets real human need.
Direct Advocacy
In addition to education, congregational engagement, and coalition work, LAMA continued to build bridges with elected officials and advocate for policies that reflect our Lutheran commitments to justice, dignity, mercy, and the common good.
This year’s direct advocacy included:
Continued use of Arizona’s Request to Speak system to support and oppose legislation consistent with LAMA’s policy priorities.
Monitoring bills related to health care, hunger, public schools, civic engagement, housing, immigration, and the well-being of families and vulnerable neighbors.
Supporting legislation to strengthen access to essential health services, including graduate medical education, mental health screening in jails, court-ordered treatment reform, and culturally appropriate care for American Indian communities.
Opposing legislation that risks creating barriers to care, stigmatizing immigrant neighbors, or weakening the safety net Arizona families rely on.
Promoting the 2026 Bread for the World Offering of Letters, encouraging congregations and community groups to use letters and personal testimony as a public witness for policies that reduce hunger in the United States and around the world.
Participating in advocacy conversations around immigration, asylum, border policy, and the fear experienced by immigrant communities, asylum seekers, Dreamers, and mixed-status families, including a May 6 meeting with Senator Ruben Gallego.
Amplifying ELCA Advocacy churchwide Action Alerts and connecting them to Arizona concerns where appropriate.
Collaboration with Bishop Deborah Hutterer for an op-ed article on the sharp decline in SNAP participation in Arizona
Multiple sign-on letters, including Arizona faith leaders denouncing public violence and support of a strong farm bill
Through a Grand Canyon Synod grant of $3,885, LAMA received support for a one-year subscription to Skywolf, a legislative bill-tracking software tool, strengthening LAMA’s ability to monitor legislation and equip advocates with timely information.
Public Schools, Civic Life, and Faithful Engagement
In 2026, LAMA’s civic engagement priority included special attention to public schools and informed Christian engagement. The Policy Council affirmed that public schools serve not only as places of education, but also as essential community anchors—offering food programs, safety, care, shelter from extreme heat, and support for students and families who are underserved.
LAMA also continued encouraging faithful, nonpartisan participation in civic life. In a contentious public climate, LAMA sought to model healthy dialogue, public responsibility, and Lutheran engagement shaped by Scripture, ELCA social teachings, and concern for the neighbor.
Health Care Advocacy
Health care became a major focus of LAMA’s 2026 advocacy. Guided by the ELCA social statement Health and Health Care: Our Shared Endeavor, LAMA affirmed that health and wholeness are blessings God intends for all people and that access to care is not merely an individual concern, but a shared responsibility.
With nearly 2 million Arizonans relying on AHCCCS, Arizona’s Medicaid program, LAMA paid close attention to proposals affecting access, affordability, rural hospitals, mental health care, and immigrant families.
In Other News
LAMA continued to offer information and updates on grants, ELCA resources, Bible studies, toolkits, policy alerts, Lutheran social teachings, public witness opportunities, and congregational advocacy resources. Remember LAMA’s first Giving Tuesday campaign? The AMMPARO Candlelight Prayer Vigil in Peace Park?
We also continued to strengthen relationships with ministry partners, coalition partners, congregational liaisons, hunger leaders, ELCA Advocacy, ELCA World Hunger (including planning and participating in the 2025 World Hunger Leadership Gathering), Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest, Bread for the World, Arizona Faith Network, Arizona Food Bank Network, and others working toward justice and the common good.
Most of all, we give thanks for the people of the Grand Canyon Synod: the pastors, deacons, lay leaders, hunger leaders, LAMA liaisons, youth, young adults, bishops, ministry partners, and advocates who continue to show up.
We are learning. We are speaking. We are building relationships. We are practicing public faith. We are remembering that advocacy is not separate from ministry—it is ministry.
This report was prepared for the Grand Canyon Synod Assembly in June 2026.