As we enter the New Year of 2026 each of us has the power to carry on the holiday spirit of peace and charity.  As President Dwight Eisenhower once remarked during a Christmas/New Year event “when the trees come down and the lights are put away — as they always are — then we have a true testing of the spirit. That testing will be answered, throughout the year ahead, by the success each of us experiences in keeping alive the inspiration and exaltation of this moment.”

We must keep the Christmas spirit alive year round to prevent war, end hunger and build peace.

As President Eisenhower said at the 1956 Pageant of Peace Ceremonies, “We must believe that the truth of Christmas is constant; that men can live together in peace as Lincoln said, ‘with charity for all, with firmness in the right.’” Eisenhower urged peaceful means to settle disputes, instead of resorting to war which often leads to harmful and lasting consequences. 

As we enter a new year with new challenges, America must remember its roots as a peaceful and charitable nation. As we try to end wars in Ukraine and Gaza, we must also prevent war from starting with Venezuela. Members of Congress have rightly expressed alarm over the U.S. military buildup near Venezuela. A bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives titled “The No Unauthorized War with Venezuela Act.” We should be looking for peaceful means to settle disputes with Venezuela. 

We must also emphasize diplomacy to end the wars in Congo, Sudan and many other suffering areas. 

The start of the New Year also brings another challenge with the expiration in February of a nuclear arms treaty with Russia. As we try to get Russia to stop its invasion of Ukraine and build peace, there must be a new treaty reducing U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons. China and other nuke powers must reduce nukes too.  We have to keep the hope of disarmament alive. We are all better off if nations can avoid expensive and dangerous arms races.

For America’s mission of charity we must increase funding for our global food aid programs, which took such a devastating blow in 2025 with the budget cuts. 

President Eisenhower’s Food for Peace program was even at risk for elimination in the budget. We should be expanding Food for Peace and other aid programs amid the horror of all the conflicts. We need to build peace and goodwill around the world and U. S. food aid is a big part of this. Just as Food for Peace helped complete the recovery of nations after World War II and the Korean War, it can do so today. 

Peace will not emerge in the Democratic Republic of the Congo if people are starving to death. The fighting in the Congo has led to a major hunger crisis that will take time to overcome, even if the fighting ended today. 

The UN World Food Program (WFP) says that in the Congo “26.6 million people nationwide are projected to face crisis levels of food insecurity or worse (IPC Phase 3 and above) by early 2026, including 3.9 million people in emergency levels of hunger (IPC Phase 4).”

But the WFP does not have enough funding to tackle the rising hunger as food aid cuts by the United States have been devastating. Relief agencies in the Congo need more support to feed the war victims. 

In war-torn Sudan, there are over 21 million people facing severe hunger according to the WFP.  Famine has been declared in Sudan and millions have been forced to flee their homes. Sudan’s war victims are currently facing ration cuts because funding has not kept pace with the crisis. 

The United States must start increasing global food aid, including the Food for Peace program, to help Congo, Sudan, and other afflicted areas. 

It’s important that each of us be an advocate for peace and charity. You can do this by speaking out and letting your elected officials know your support of humanitarian aid. 

Especially with the power of today’s weapons, war is a horrible path to take and its consequences are massive. We need to do everything possible to end wars and prevent new ones. We must extend charity to overcome the enemy that threatens all peoples, hunger and poverty. And for millions the enemy of hunger can be deadly if help does not arrive. 

The New Year always brings hope for peace. It won’t happen overnight, but if we stay with it we can move the world closer to peace and away from war. 

William Lambers is the author of “The Road to Peace” and partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.” His writings have been published by the Washington Post, Newsweek, History News Network and many other news outlets.