6th Annual Oxfam Action Corps Lobby Day

By guest blogger Kristen Miller, intern with Oxfam’s Boston office.

 
On May 15^th in Washington D.C Oxfam Action Corps Organizers lobbied over 52 Senators and Representatives from over fifteen states, and I got to join them for my first experience in grassroots advocacy.
 We urged Members of Congress to fix the food aid program by cutting waste, putting the interests of people in need and American taxpayers ahead of industry lobbyists. Oxfam doesn’t take US government funds, but recognizes that cutting government red tape would help deliver more life saving food aid at the same price. Today 32 cents of every tax dollar spent on food aid goes to waste or to special interests.  It's spent on shipping overseas, markups for shipping regulations, markups for purchasing from preferred U.S growers and overhead. 75% of U.S food aid must be shipped from the U.S on preferred U.S vessels; these special interest regulations cost U.S taxpayers over $491 million annually.

Together with the Action Corps organizers we urged our representatives to make our dollars count! We delivered over 10,000 petitions from Oxfam supporters and asked for food aid to be purchased locally in developing countries rather than have it shipped from the U.S. This would allow more money to directly go to the purchase of food as well as support local farmers in these developing countries. With these reforms the US would be able to respond to crises up to 14 weeks faster and reach 17 million more people with lifesaving food aid. When people are starving the time it takes for food to be delivered can make all the difference!

We are counting on our Members of Congress to take urgent action and reform food aid provisions in the Farm Bill.  Oxfam staff will continue to deliver our message as debate continues in Washington.  All in all, the 6^th Annual Oxfam Action Corps Training lobby day was a huge success—as described by Jessica Shao an organizer from San Francisco (pictured here with Amy Torregrossa), “The lobby day was a wonderful experience, I’m very thankful for this opportunity to experience our democracy.”  For my part, I’ll take this training in grassroots advocacy with me in coming years as I continue my studies in France and complete my degree in International Affairs at Northeastern University.