By Marco Grimaldo<\/p>\n
Rev. Joel Underwood, Bread for the World\u2019s first staff member, and its director of organizing, church relations, and fundraising departments passed away in December.<\/p>\n
He spent 27 years at Bread before retiring in 2001. Bread gives thanks to God for Joel\u2019s life and ministry, as we honor his memory.<\/p>\n
Barbara Howell, a longtime friend and colleague, recalls Joel as \u201csuch a joyous person, a good friend that wanted to share his joy and the work of Bread with everyone.\u201d Howell is a former director of government relations at Bread.<\/p>\n
Joel began working at Bread in 1974. He led Project 500 \u2013 an effort to recruit 500 local leaders for Bread and launched the organization\u2019s first Offering of Letters campaign aimed at calling on Congress to pass the Right to Food resolution<\/p>\n
\u201cIn each capacity he has held, Joel cut new ground,\u201d said Rev. Art Simon, Bread\u2019s founding president.<\/p>\n
Steve Hitchcock, a former Bread staff member, said the work of the development team under Joel\u2019s tenure was to increase the number of Bread members and help grow the movement.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a constant cheerleader for members,\u201d Hitchcock said. \u201cJoel knew that the members\u2019 actions and their gifts made everything possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
During his tenure at Bread, Joel wrote and composed, \u201cLazarus,\u201d a musical about hunger and poverty while on sabbatical. The musical was first performed in Washington, D.C., and it has since been produced an estimated 2,000 times in churches and community theatres across the nation and 15 times outside the U.S., raising more than a million dollars for hunger-related causes.<\/p>\n
A Spanish version, \u201cLazaro,\u201d was performed in El Salvador.\u00a0Joel\u2019s interests in music and the arts went beyond producing musicals. He also served as executive editor of \u201cBanquet of Praise,\u201d a hymnal published by Bread for the World.<\/p>\n
Calling him a \u201ctrue renaissance man,\u201d Bishop Don DiXon Williams, who worked with Joel on outreach to African American churches, said: \u201cHis God-given talents were used in the service of God and God\u2019s children and my life is better because I had the privilege of knowing him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before coming to Bread, Joel served as a chaplain and then later as founding pastor, associate pastor, and pastor at several United Methodist congregations. From 1965-69, Joel and his wife, Helen, served as missionaries in Calcutta, India (now called Kolkata) where they worked with other religious leaders on hunger and poverty.<\/p>\n