Join us in this National Action on May 12th (the Friday before Mother's Day) and gather members of your community to take pies to your local Congressional offices with a banner; "On behalf of Mothers Everywhere, Peace Wants a Piece of the Pie!" as well as a downloaded national budget pie chart showing the tiny slice that represents the portion of the U.S. federal budget requested for the Department of Peace and Nonviolence. (You can also download a new full sheet pie chart).

Call your local newspapers and television stations and send them a press release for CLICK HERE for media guidelines). Ask them to come and take pictures of local teams delivering the pies with Department of Peace banners. Bring your children, along with pictures they've made that convey their message of peace, and make it a fun and festive event! This is a great way to get attention for a very important endeavor.

Mother's Day was in part inspired by a woman named Julia Ward Howe who nursed the wounded during the American Civil War; she also wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic. In 1870 she started a crusade to institute a Mother's Day as a Day for Peace. Click here to read her Mother's Day proclamation.

To further empower our work for peace, host a Peace of the Pie House Party (and optional fundraiser) to spread the word about why citizens all over this country are taking pies to their local Members of Congress on behalf of the Department of Peace and Nonviolence Legislation. We want a small percent of the federal budget allocated directly toward funding projects that foster a culture of peace in our nation and around the world.

House parties are a key part of our grassroots campaign to spread our message and to raise funds for the campaign. They are also an important and fun way to identify volunteers and build momentum to pass this historic legislation. Invite your friends and family over for a Pie Party sometime just before Mother's Day (serve pie, coffee and tea), show our DVD, inform them about our work -- with help from materials we have prepared for you -- and invite them to an opportunity to visit their local congressional district office on May 12th. This is also an opportunity to encourage others to become a peace partner, our monthly donors sustaining the national campaign.

Click here to learn more about our Peace of the Pie Campaign!

Check out what Minnesota has planned this year! click here

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Please let us know you are planning on participating in this particular campaign by visiting: https://www.securedservers.net/renaiss/pie.html  (copy and paste the link)

Minnesota group at 2005 Peace of the Pie gathering.

Click here for pictures and media generated from last years campaign.

[We also have an action scheduled for Father's Day---Fathers everywhere will send pictures of themselves with their children to their Congressperson requesting them to cosponsor HR3760/ S1756 to establish a cabinet level Dept of Peace and Nonviolence. More information coming.]

*Pie Chart Source: New York Times, Feb. 8, 2005, based on Budget of the United States FY.

The proposed Department of Peace budget is equivalent to 2% of whatever the current Department of Defense budget is (currently around $10 billion). It is not meant to come out of the Department of Defense budget.