Transforming the Whole Pond
Couple Fights Poverty at Local,
Global, and Grassroots Levels
Bread for the World members Susan and Russell Stall of Susan and Russell Stall support Bread for the World through prayer,
Greenville, N.C., work to change systems and empower peo- action, and giving.
ple. The couple recently traveled to Kenya, a trip organized
by Dining for Women. Susan serves on the board of the lo- interest to Russell.
“Public gardens, especially in low-income neighborhoods,
cal chapter of this global giving circle dedicated to helping
are becoming the new front porch, where people can see
women and girls in the developing world. The Stalls learned
about Dining for Women when its founder addressed a Just- each other and visit, and grow healthy food to eat,” he says.
The Stalls are members of Triune Mercy Center, a nonFaith group that the Stalls facilitated in 2011.
JustFaith is a small-group curriculum that links spiritu- denominational mission church, where affluent members sit
ality and the church’s social justice mission. Bread for the shoulder to shoulder with homeless people, who make up
World President David Beckmann, another speaker in the half the congregation. Susan calls the church “an incredible
JustFaith series, also made a lasting impression on the Stalls. model.” Triune recently hosted a large Offering of Letters.
“David told about meeting the mother of his adopted These letters to Congress had a special significance, since
child,” Susan recalls. “This woman had made a contribu- many of them were penned by low-income and homeless
tion to Bread for the World. When David asked her what constituents.
Susan and Russell have a son in college and another in
motivated the gift, the woman said that when she was a
his senior year of high school. Their oldyoung, unwed, pregnant woman, she
est son, Hampton, worked as an intern at
couldn’t have survived without the gov- “Bread for the World could go
Bread for the World this past summer.
ernment assistance that Bread for the out and give food to people.
The Stalls’ preferred mode of finanWorld helps pass in Congress. Now that
But changing systems?
cially supporting efforts to end hunger
her life was stable, she wanted to support
Empowering people to speak
is through gifts of stock to Bread for the
Bread’s work.
out? That’s not teaching a
World Institute.
“I was struck by how this person was
man to fish. It’s transforming
“We’re not the top of the heap when
helped—and even more that Bread for
the whole pond!”
it comes to income. But we do have rethe World’s own leader was indirectly im– Russell Stall sources,” Susan explains. “When we give
pacted by Bread’s advocacy through his
appreciated stock, Bread for the World
child’s birth mother,” Susan continues. “I
was also struck by the inclusiveness David exuded when he Institute gets the full amount—and we are not liable to pay
addressed us. My son asked a question, and David answered capital gains tax on it. So giving stock has been a great
as though Hampton (the only teenager at the event) was the mechanism for us. Being Bread members provides us with a
way to advocate for the world’s most marginalized people.”
most important person in the room.”
“Bread for the World could go out and give food to peoIn 2008, Russell founded Greenville Forward, dedicated
to improving the Stalls’ home city. The effort mobilizes com- ple,” Russell says. “But changing systems? Empowering
munity conversations, leadership development, and com- people to speak out? That’s not teaching a man to fish. It’s
munity gardens, to name just a few. The latter is of special transforming the whole pond!”
6 Bread | November-December 2013
Photo courtesy of Jay Spivey/FETE Magazine
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