BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Several Birmingham pastors and church members met at Baptist Church of the Covenant Wednesday to talk about food insecurity and poverty in Central Alabama.

The conversation was led by Reverend Eugene Cho, a visionary leader with Bread for the World, and opened the door to address the issue and present solutions to fix it.

“We’ve heard even up to 25% plus of children experiencing food insecurity and I think when people hear these statistics, we’ve got to realize that these statistics are not just mere numbers, these are real sons and daughters,” said Rev. Cho.

Bread for the World is a Christian advocacy organization committed to ending hunger by looking into legislation and policies. Cho said through this organization and their faith they can overcome hunger in Central Alabama.

“There are 41.5 million Americans who utilize SNAP. So how do we make sure that we’re protecting [and] expanding SNAP,” Rev. Cho said. “There’s a program called WIC, for women, infants and children, and also GusNIP. All of these things are some examples of the policies that we’re looking at.”

The conversation allowed other faith leaders and church members to present their ideas to tackle the issue as well.

Though an unfortunate reality, it’s a conversation that needs to happen in order to make a change in communities.

“It’s good that people are going to talk about it and we hear different point of views on it and we can put our ideas together to come up with a solution,” said Katie Goodwin of Baptist Church of Covenant.