I Experienced a Culture Shock Coming to the US—But It Led to an Unexpected Calling

My father was born in what is now North Korea, in a village outside of Pyongyang. As one of six children, he faced hunger and poverty daily. His family fled to the southern region, which would later become South Korea after the war, and in 1977, my parents made an incredibly difficult decision to leave their homeland to come to the United States in hopes of providing more opportunities for my brothers and me.
Although their decision and courage has changed the trajectory of our lives, coming to the U.S. was a culture shock. It was at the San Francisco airport that I first experienced people who did not look like me.
A week after we arrived, I found myself in first grade, lost among 25 other students and unable to speak English. Children are kind, but they can also be cruel. I was constantly reminded that I was different, that I was “other.” This led me to develop social anxiety, a fear of people, and a stutter.
Within that first year in San Francisco a fire broke out at the apartment building we lived in. Our family had no other option than to move into the grocery store my parents ran. While I don’t remember my two older brothers and me experiencing hunger during that time, I often noticed that my parents would not eat at mealtime. As a child, you do not understand parents choosing to eat less so their children can have more, but now, when I look back, it brings up a lot of
emotions.
Those early years in San Francisco were the most formative of my life. I still see the world through that lens, which is why I believe I have a proclivity for people on the margins.
In 2001, my wife and I founded Quest Church, an urban, multicultural, and multigenerational community in Seattle. In my first year I did not have a salary from the church, but from working as a janitor at Barnes & Noble. It was an arduous and unexpected beginning but deeply formational.
My young family benefitted from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, the U.S. Government’s health and nutrition program for pregnant and postpartum women and infants.
In 2009, I launched One Day’s Wages, a grassroots organization that encouraged people around the world to donate one day of their wages to alleviating global poverty.
Today, I’m President and CEO of Bread for the World, one of the largest Christian advocacy organizations in the country. We speak up for legislation and policies that will end hunger in the U.S. and around the world.
As you can tell from my professional journey, the generational memory of hunger lingers in my family. I know—because my parents have taught me—that one of the greatest legacies we ever leave our children is about embodying our faith.
It’s hard to believe that I was elected president of Bread for the World in March 2020, right when the pandemic first reached widespread crisis in the United States. It caused the worst hunger crisis the U.S. and world had seen in years and set back decades of progress against hunger, poverty, and disease that the world had made over the previous decades.
I held to my heart something Martin Luther King, Jr, said: “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
I prayed for our Bread leaders to be encouraged and stay encouraged as we worked through the uncertainty of that time. That’s my same prayer for everyone today: be encouraged and stay encouraged—not just in your humanity and your calling, but also in faithfulness.
This life is a marathon, not a sprint, and it is easy to become discouraged. One of the most significant impediments to life is the spirit of discouragement. My encouragement is not without a firm basis.
As crazy as it may sound, I believe we can still end hunger in our lifetimes. It is possible in a technical sense, and it is possible to garner the necessary human and political will. And as a follower of Christ, I believe that with Christ, all things are possible.
That, and the idea of human flourishing—hat every human being, created in the image of God, has inherent dignity that affords an opportunity to be in right relationship with God, self, neighbor, and the environment; and to freely access enough nutritious food for good health—are the crux of Bread for the World’s identity.
To accomplish it, Bread for the World seeks to integrate the practical with the prophetic. We value courage and the prophetic voice. In a spirit of wisdom and love, Bread works to be bold in articulating and pursuing our vision of a world without hunger. At the same time, we value practicality, because we want effective and sustainable public policies.
So, Bread for the World employs a civil and bipartisan approach; we are a non-partisan organization working in bi-partisan ways.
When people ask me, “Eugene, are you a Republican or Democrat?”, my honest response is: “on what issue?” Are you saying that one party has a monopoly on all the things we believe to parallel to God’s heart? I don’t believe that any political party does, even though that’s a message shared by both the left and the right.
But we cannot ignore politics and pretend it does not matter, either. Politics matter because it informs policies that impact people, and God cares about people, particularly those who are marginalized in our society. What makes a society more consistent with the heart of God is a society that has a passion for people who are vulnerable and marginalized.
In the Bible, Old Testament law established a structure for society with deep, divine concern for people who experience poverty and disapproval of systems that do not dignify God’s people and places them in conditions of hunger and poverty. Prophets spoke out against injustice and condemned the lack of concern for people experiencing poverty, regardless of the structure of government in which they were living.
Scriptures speak to the role and responsibility of leaders that govern to care for all people, including people experiencing poverty.
In 2023, the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services honored me as “Outstanding American by Choice.” That I, with my history and calling, was honored in a ceremony that recognized the contributions of naturalized U.S. citizens tells me that our government does, at least in some sense, prioritize addressing hunger and poverty.
Every day in the U.S. and around the world, millions of people continue to struggle with hunger that is not inevitable. I’m grateful that the U.S. government is committed to doing its part to achieve that goal.
And there is much to do. We need Congress to pass a Farm Bill that builds healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems by protecting SNAP and Food for Peace—that invests in global nutrition; that strengthens domestic child nutrition programs and makes Child Tax Credit improvements permanent—that passes the Dream and Promise Act; that strengthens International Financial Institutions, and so much more.
Just as Paul in Acts exercised his power as a Roman citizen, so too can Christians advocate for our government to protect and provide for all its people. Take the first step in faith—and together, we can bring the world closer to the end of hunger.
Rev. Eugene Cho is President/CEO of Bread for the World, a Christian advocacy organization urging U.S. decision makers to do all they can to pursue a world without hunger. Bread’s mission is to educate and equip people to advocate for policies and programs that can help end hunger in the U.S. and around the world.
All views expressed are the author’s own.
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