In episode 7 of Here I Pod, host Regina Q. Banks speaks to Alesia Frerichs, President and CEO of Lutheran Services in America. They discuss the broad array of services LSA provides and how they plan to respond to the upcoming budget reconciliation process, which is set to start in earnest around May 7th.

Following the interview, our impact story comes from Hailea James of Lutheran Social Services of Northern California, and illustrates the amount of support provided to individuals in need. The episode concludes with our history segment by Hunger Advocacy fellow Joey Chen.

Action step: ELCA Advocacy wants to share your stories about the moral concerns you have regarding the potential impact to your community of cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, or clean energy programs. We are collecting those stories in via a Google Form (login via Google account is required) found here: https://bit.ly/AdvocacyStoriesMay25

Here I Pod is a production of ELCA Advocacy.

Host: Regina Q. Banks
Production: Blake Chastain, Joey Chin, Karen Krueger
Intro/Outro Music: "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" arranged in jazz-style, by Steven Seigart

About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with 2.8 million members in more than 8,500 worshiping communities across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of “God’s work. Our hands.,” the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA’s roots are in the writings of the German church reformer Martin Luther.