Celebrating a 40 Year Tradition with Oxfam!

Across the country, Action Corps cities are participating in Oxfam America Hunger Banquets. The very first Oxfam Hunger Banquet took place nearly 40 years ago, and today it’s a tradition that takes place all over the US in synagogues, temples, churches, schools, offices, libraries and community centers. Hunger Banquets are a simulation, where luck controls where you sit and what you eat. No one Hunger Banquet is the same but all participants leave with more knowledge about the harsh realities of global hunger. 

This year, 8 Action Corps cities held an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet, contributing to the over 400 held this year!  Nearly 600 people participated in one of the following Action Corps hosted events, and many more learned about global hunger through Action Corps outreach.  For more information on hosting your own Oxfam America Hunger Banquet, click here.

Take a look at the photos from these inspiring simulations:

Boston

 This Oxfam America Hunger Banquet drew local college students, activists, and Oxfam enthusiasts!

For more on the Boston Oxfam America Hunger Banquet click here!

Des Moines

Des Moines was the host of two Oxfam America Hunger Banquets this year!  One, with the Global Youth Institute drew a crowd of 300 high school students during the Borlaug Dialogue in Iowa.

300 high school students participate in this Oxfam America Hunger Banquet

Hunger Banquet with the ONE Campaign!

Hunger Banqueter chooses her fate 

For more on the Des Moines Oxfam America Hunger Banquet and the Borlaug Dialogues, check out the Iowa Action Corps' blog here!

Minneapolis

Minneapolis joins in with CHANGE leaders at Macalester college!

For more on the Minnesota Action Corps, check out their blog here!

Seattle

University of Washington Bothell Clubs and Organizations, Cascadia Community College, Human Equality and Rights Everywhere, and the Seattle Oxfam Action Corps came together to host an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet!

Participants are split by lower, middle and upper income

Keynote speaker Ray Offenheiser, President of Oxfam America

To see more from the Seattle Action Corps, click here!

Columbus

Columbus Action Corps partnered with the Salvation Army of Central Ohio and the Foundation for the African Diaspora for the annual Oxfam Hunger Banquet. 

Participants discover what their meal will look like

Chicago, Madison, Kansas City

Chicago hosted an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet with North Central College.  Stay tuned for pictures of their Hunger Banquet with Loyola University coming soon!

Madison hosted a Hunger Banquet with the University of Wisconsin Madison!

Kansas City joined with Adelaide College to host one too!

In total, Oxfam America Hunger Banquets were hosted in 8 Action Corps cities, at colleges with participating CHANGE leaders, and at a variety of high schools, community centers, and religious gatherings around the nation!


For almost 40 years Oxfam America Hunger Banquets have drawn in people of all ages, leaving participants with an unique perspective on global hunger. This year, thanks to the Oxfam Action Corps, over 600 people attended Oxfam America Hunger Banquets and experienced how global hunger affects each and every one of us.


For information on Oxfam America Hunger Banquets or how you can host your own, click here. You can also follow Oxfam Hunger Banquets on Twitter, check out events in your area, and read a first-hand report of an experience at the Boston Oxfam America Hunger Banquet to get a feel for what these events are like.

                                                     

An idea that's worth spreading.

Only 5 days left - Vote for Oxfam Action Corps’ Idea to Raise Awareness for East Africa!

Six of the Oxfam Action Corps teams (San Francisco, Des Moines, Chicago, Columbus, Boston and New York City) joined forces under the leadership of Elissa Yoder (Columbus Oxfam Action Corps) and submitted a proposal to GOOD to win $5,000 for awareness building here in the US about the East Africa crisis. Their idea involves hosting 6 simultaneous Oxfam America Hunger Banquets ® and linking them all via live web streaming.

How will the winning proposal be decided? The answer is by votes. Anyone can vote, and the proposal with the most votes by Wednesday, December 14 9am ET WINS $5,000 to actually implement the idea!

Will you take 2 seconds tovote? Check out their idea and vote for the Action Corps at http://fwd.maker.good.is/projects/ACTIONCORPS!

Other ways to help spread the word:
1. Take the above language and post it to your team’s blog.
2. Post on Facebook:  Got 2 seconds? Vote right now for the Oxfam Action Corps to win $5,000 to implement a cool idea here in the US to raise awareness about the crisis in East Africa. Help us win this. Vote here, http://fwd.maker.good.is/projects/ACTIONCORPS .
3.  Tweet about it: VOTE now to help @OxfamAction Corps win $5K to raise awareness about the #East Africa crisis! http://ow.ly/7QHZa @GOOD.

4. Send the above language as a one-off newsletter to your contacts.

The Oxfam America Hunger Banquet ® gives attendees extremely valuable insight into the root causes of poverty hunger, motivating them to take action against such atrocities as the famine in East Africa.

Speaking of Hunger Banquets, check out some great photos of the Madison Oxfam Action Corps Hunger Banquet!

SF Bay Area Oxfam Action Corps Hunger Banquet and "Africa's Last Famine" Screening

Congratulations to the San Francisco Bay Area Oxfam Action Corps on their successful Hunger Banquet and film screening of "Africa's Last Famine"!  

Posted 11/15/2011

This past weekend we held a Film Screening and Hunger Banquet in Berkeley. Thank you to all who attended! We had an educational and inspirational evening!

The evening started with remarks from Thao Nguyen, a local musician and Oxfam Sister on the Planet. We then viewed "Africa's Last Famine", a new film co-produced by LinkTV and Oxfam America. If you haven't seen the film, it'savailable online and worth watching, as it addresses the ongoing food crisis and famine in the Horn of Africa and provides examples of innovative programs that are working to give poor farmers resilience to survive and thrive during droughts.

We then moved on to the Hunger Banquet. From the start, the inequalities were evident, as only three people sat at a decorated table with place settings while most were sitting on the floor. The high income received a nutritious and gourmet meal, and middle income ate rice and beans. The majority in the low income group on the floor were served last and only had rice to eat on corn husks--no plates, no utensils. After eating, guests shared heartfelt comments about poverty and hunger. Simulating global inequalities within physical proximity made the experience very impactful for many. Several chose to act immediately by writing letters to our Senators. Thank you to those who wrote letters--we'll be hand-delivering the 11 letters soon! And everyone signed the petition asking Congress to fully fund poverty-focused aid in the upcoming budget decisions.

If you missed the event and want to take action, please consider the following:

1) Sign the online petition

2) Write or call your senator. Email us if you want help wording your request.

3) Give back this holiday season with Oxfam America Unwrapped

4) Attend Seeds of Resistance on December 6, by Women's Earth Alliance

5) Visit the Revolution Hunger website

Special thanks to Cancun Sabor Mexicano, Stella Nonna, and Gather for food donations and to Women's Earth Alliance and Revolution Hunger for partnering with us!

Oxfam America Hunger Banquets throughout the U.S.!

Another amazing blog post by Drew Love of the Boston Oxfam Action Corps!

Think Fast, Imagine 1.85 Billion Hands 

by: Drew Love 

Can you imagine my two hands? Of course you can. They look, by all accounts, similar to your two hands. Although I don’t trim my nails as often as I should, and I’m terrible at moisturizing. But for the most part, you can imagine what a pair of hands looks like. 

What about your hands and my hands? The mental arithmetic becomes slightly more difficult, but not terribly so. Yet at some point, if we continue to add pairs of hands to this mental image, there comes a time when you reach the limit of your imagination. We can only imagine so many hands at a time, and it’s usually a very small number. 

So if I ask you to imagine 1.85 billion hands, is it even worth the question? 

And if I tell you that those 1.85 billion hands are a part of the 925 million people who went hungry last year, can we really understand the scope of that hunger?  

The challenging part is that even if we could understand the depth of that problem by reading a statistic, we would reach that understanding alone, most likely in front of our computers and in silence. 

Now that’s depressing. 

But there are better ways to understand the challenges we face. The most visceral form of learning is to go through an experience, not just read a statistic. The most empowering way to resolve a challenge is to do it with a sense of community, not in isolation. 

So would you like to learn about hunger in the only way we can, by experiencing it? And would you like to learn about it in the only context that will ever create a solution, with a community? 

We ask you to become part of that experience, part of that community, and part of the solution of reaching out to those 1.85 billion hands, so that 925 million people no longer have to go hungry. 

Learn more about this experience: host your own Hunger Banquet and attend Boston's Action Corps Hunger Banquet this weekend. 

 In addition to Boston's Action Corps Hunger Banquet, there is an upcoming Oxfam America Hunger Banquet hosted by the Madison Oxfam Action Corps.


The Oxfam Action Corps teams in Minneapolis, Chicago, and San Francisco have already hosted powerful Hunger Banquets this season, as has Iowa, pictured here.  

Find an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet in your area in the ACT FAST calendar, Change the world. Start here.