Community building is important to Action Corps success

Many of you have been participating in online training sessions to prepare for volunteering in your city's Oxfam Action Corp. And some are gearing up for additional training and a lobby experience in Washington DC.  A common challenge for Action Corps is to establish a local presence and build a team of core volunteers. This post written by Yoshiko is a wonderful account of her experience building community as an organizer. 

Building Community in a Population of 7.4 Million

Submitted by Yoshiko Hill

The San Francisco Bay Area has quite the reputation; one of flowering natural vistas, pronounced diversity, technology driven innovation and social activism, but advocating for hunger, poverty and social justice inequality is no easy task even within an activism incubator like the Bay Area. Bearing this in mind, how does one build relevance and elevate above the clutter of bustling lifestyles and boundless priorities to become a force for change in the local advocacy landscape of the Bay Area's 101 cities?

For Oxfam America's California based grassroots arm, the Bay Area Oxfam Action Corps (OAC), the answer lies in community building and a microscopic focus on relationships to connect advocates, volunteers, local leaders and politicians alike in an area with a population of 7.4 million.

As an OAC Organizer, I worked to make community building center stage and created relationships based on the shared vision of a world without hunger and poverty by prioritizing one-on-one communication, managing diverse and engaging local events and shaping a social atmosphere.

While leading Oxfam America's local grassroots efforts, I helped foster an active passion for social justice advocacy within members of the Bay Area Oxfam community by establishing partnerships with leading nonprofits, opening dialogue with local elected officials and of course encouraging fresh-faced volunteers to step out of their comfort zones and flex their outreach muscles.

Of my diverse functions as an Organizer, one of the most rewarding was my role as a catalyst through which I was able to empower our more introverted volunteers to lead and take ownership of local outreach efforts by directly engaging the public and building confidence as a social activist.

Many of our volunteers are new to advocacy and have never taken on such an active outreach role in their professional or personal lives. For these folks, the OAC offers a unique opportunity for self-discovery and genuine personal growth. One such volunteer was a longtime Oxfam supporter, but new to active engagement with the organization. He dived right in by volunteering with our rockstar team at a local farmer’s market and was openly nervous about initiating one-on-one conversations. After an hour with the team, he found his own communication style and was engaging in thoughtful conversations around the importance of local farmers, food justice and worker’s rights like a professional. Playing off of the group’s fun, casual and welcoming dynamics, and after a bit of positive encouragement, he discovered his inner activist.

Effecting these tiny sparks helped create countless memories that I will not soon forget and allowed me to master the dynamic relationship and community building skills invaluable to any career path and essential to promoting social awareness anyplace whether San Francisco or Indianapolis.

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!

World Food Prize update as we approach World Food Day!

Desiree Thayer, San Francisco Bay Area Oxfam Action Corps organizer, wrote two great posts (reprinted below) about her experience at the World Food Prize this week in Des Moines, Iowa!  She is there with organizers Amy and Stephen and other volunteers from the Iowa Action Corps, organizer Arielle of the NYC OAC, organizer Elissa of the Columbus OAC, organizer Nancy of the Chicago OAC, and Oxfam America staff, including Campaigns Director Judy Beals, Agricultural Advocacy Lead Jim French, Organizing and Alliances Coordinator Rebecca Perlmutter, Community Engagement Specialist Clara Herrero, and Senior Volunteer and Community Organizer Brian Rawson.

Volunteer Eileen, Organizing and Alliances Coordinator Rebecca Perlmutter, NYC Organizer Arielle, and SF Bay Area Organizer Desiree at the World Food Prize in Des Moines, IA.

Happy World Food Day, everybody!

Posted 10/12/2011

It's been a busy day at the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa. Oxfam Action Corps volunteers from Des Moines, Chicago, Columbus, New York City, and San Francisco are here along with Oxfam America staff and special guest farmers from Colombia and Ethiopia.

The day was filled with talks and panel discussions from many sectors of agriculture and food, including governmental, nonprofit, private business, and academic. Nearly every talk I attended expressed a need to increase food production to feed a growing population of 9 billion people by 2050, though, not surprisingly, the approaches described varied from high tech products and methods to development assistance programs for farmers in developing countries.

Two descriptions of the food system that resonated with me were from Howard G. Buffett from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and Judy Beals from Oxfam America. Mr. Buffett said, "Different farmers need different solutions," which he has witnessed on his own research farms here in the Midwest and in South Africa. He shared four stories of projects, all that were unsuccessful but proved to be great lessons in the importance of local and geographic-specific considerations for determining technology feasibility environmentally, economically, and socially. Echoing a similar view, Judy Beals explained how we are faced with the need to reform the food system, which is a complex problem and "there is no silver bullet and no magic seeds".

We were also very fortunate to have two female farmers from developing countries come to share their experiences at an Oxfam-sponsored panel. Nelly Velandia, a farmer from Colombia, and Silas Samson Biru, an Ethiopian farmer, spoke about their work with farmer-led initiatives in their countries. Nelly is a leader for the Farmers' Markets Program in Bogota, which aims to promote the small farm economy and bring fresh food produced by small farmers directly to the consumer at fair prices. Silas participates in a risk-management program: Horn of Africa Risk Transfer for Adaptation (HARITA). Both women have worked hard as leaders in their communities, facing difficulties as they break cultural norms for women and convince local government to include them in decision-making. Their stories in inspiring, not only for their successes, but also for their perseverance to continually improve their programs.

Tomorrow will be another day full of information at the World Food Prize. Stay tuned for more updates.

Posted 10/13/2011

Today was another full day of learning and sharing at the World Food Prize in Des Moines. Conversations about food and agriculture continued, as many players involved in food production and food-related policies were included on today's schedule.

One of the day's earliest sessions was a report of the 2011 Global Hunger Index by the International Food Policy Research Institute. This report is based on the most recent data about hunger and malnutrition and makes recommendations for ways to address food security. The full report is available online, with much information relevant to Oxfam's GROW campaign.

There were also several panel discussions focused on the inclusion of women and girls in agriculture development. Mary Rono, a dairy farmer from the Kendu region of Kenya, spoke about her experiences as co-founder and chairperson of the Koitogos Dairy Cooperative Society. She described social and cultural barriers she faced in her community and home while establishing her group, which gained status as a coop earlier this year. The coop is now very successful with 350 members, including 33% women and 15% youth. By pooling their milk for sale at a nearby processor, the farmers have secured a good price and steady income. They also have training sessions to learn about better practices to raise and tend their animals. Mary's story is very inspirational, with her determined personality apparent to ensure the livelihood of her family and community.

The Secretary's Roundtable and African Presidential Leadership Roundtable were also held today. It was very interesting to learn about the agricultural development goals and practices of several African countries. On the positive side it seems some of the African countries represented in the sessions are working to improve and maintain small-scale farming. For example Tanzania is using rice seeds from their own research efforts, with rice yields more than twice as much for small-scale farmers compared to large farms. Also, Mozambique has 1000 demonstration plots that are used to educate farmers on improve methods. However, it was surprising, to me, to learn about the use of subsidies for seed and fertilizer in Ghana and Tanzania. Due to the limited budgets of the governments in these countries, the Ministers of Agriculture from both recognize the likely non-sustainability of subsidy programs. One can only hope their farmers will have long-term security if government subsidies are reduced or eliminated in the future.

Once again a common message was to realize and embrace that different solutions are required to ensure food security in different areas. Though it seems that many see the importance of taking geographical and some social differences into consideration for food and agriculture development, it's not clear whether developed countries have fully realized that there should be more than a one-way exchange of ideas and programs. A two-way exchange between developed countries and developing countries is needed to realize long-term and sustainable success for implementation of agriculture development strategies. We in the developed world are faced with many problems in our own food system (e.g. obesity and nutrition, environmental impact, loss of family farms), and a more holistic approach is needed in developing countries to avoid facing the same problems we face today.

Reposted from Ode Magazine.
Written by Desiree Thayer of San Francisco bay Area Oxfam Action Corps.

Expanding the border of local food advocates

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Thousands of people, mostly women and children, have been walking for days. Not just a day or two, they've been walking for fifteen to twenty days, bound for Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. Many of the women have lost children to hunger during the trek or taken unaccompanied minors (likely orphans) found along the way into their care. All of these people were in utter desperation to leave their homes and come to a camp in such a remote place for food and water. There are now 400,000 people in Dadaab. The influx of 9,000 people per week is taxing on the resources of the camp.

The ongoing food crisis in East Africa, including Kenya and Ethiopia and the famine in parts of Somalia, is affecting over 11 million people and the result of a series of circumstances. In Somalia, a two-year drought devastated harvests and depleted livestock. This in turn led to record food prices beyond the reach of many. There is also internal conflict in Somalia, tied to a lack of basic infrastructure and social services.

Of course emergency humanitarian relief is needed to save lives now. But equally important is the need to address underlying problems to achieve long-term solutions.

Overall this is an issue of food and power. There is enough food produced to feed everyone but still nearly 1 billion people go to bed hungry every night. The food system is broken, and we need to change the way we grow and share food so everyone has enough to eat.

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, there are many great efforts to change our local food system and how we eat. We have support for eating local and organic food through farmers’ markets and community supported agriculture, more people taking part in urban gardening in community gardens or their own backyard, many chefs in our restaurants who prepare local and sustainable foods, and efforts to reform school lunches. And from travels to other cities and regions, I’ve witnessed the local food movement’s presence from coast to coast.

Much like the benefits we will reap locally and nationally by moving to more sustainable agriculture and supporting local farmers, these same advantages are desirable to the global food system. Most of the hungry in developing countries are actually small-scale food producers (farmers, pastoralists, fishers). So in order to help those who are vulnerable to hunger, there should be investment in small-scale food producers, protection of their rights to land and other natural resources, and support to maintain resilience through climate change and food price increases.

When it comes to the food movement here, a common saying is “Think globally, act locally.” It’s time for local food advocates to embrace the global food system and to push for changes by focusing on local efforts here and abroad. “Think globally, act locally and support global reform.”

Oxfam’s GROW campaign aims to build a better food system: one that sustainably feeds a growing population (estimated to reach nine billion by 2050) and empowers poor people to earn a living, feed their families, and thrive. Learn more and take the GROW pledge on Oxfam America’s website. Take action today at www.oxfamamerica.org/grow

Photo: Neil Palmer (CIAT)

posted by THAYERD on 8/17/2011 11:59 am | COMMENTS (54)

From Washington, DC: Growing the GROW Campaign

by Nickolas Johnson, San Francisco Bay Action Corps Organizer and Economic Justice Intern for Oxfam America's Washington, DC office

With the 24-hour news cycles constantly discussing the debt ceiling and the nation’s budget woes, it is easy to tune out much of what is said from either side of the aisle. Regardless, I go out of my way to catch new developments and updates from the President, but even I was surprised by what he mentioned at one of his recent press conferences.  

“So I think there are ways that you can essentially take a little over a trillion dollars in serious discretionary cuts, meaningful discretionary cuts, and then start building on top of that some cuts in non-health care mandatory payments, ethanol programs...”

Not once had I heard the Administration suggest cutting ethanol programs prior to this conference. Looking back, it was a welcome surprise. 

Eliminating ethanol subsides is particularly important to me due to my activism in fighting global hunger. My activism has led me to the Oxfam Action Corps, which I have been a part of for just over a year. I joined as a volunteer and am now the co-leader of the San Francisco Bay Area Action Corps. 

Currently, I have been working with Oxfam America’s Policy and Campaigns team as the Economic Justice Intern in Washington, DC. As the Economic Justice Intern, I focus on Oxfam’s most recent and ambitious campaign: GROW. 

One of GROW’s campaign goals is for the government to make cuts to its ethanol programs. I joined the GROW team right before its launch and have witnessed the campaign come a long way since then. To have President Obama start mainstream political discourse on cutting ethanol programs is a huge achievement for GROW considering the campaign’s recency. 

This experience has showed me that Oxfam’s seeds of ideas can lead to substantive change with hard work and dedication. During my internship, I have been lucky enough to be exposed to and work on the beginning of a new and exciting venture. Seeing ideas take shape into concrete plans and actions, and seeing my fellow Action Corps members help launch the GROW campaign across the country has made me proud to be part of this effo rt.

It was during President Obama’s speech that I had seen the arc of idea to change. I have seen the seed of an idea grow through many of its incarnations to the brink of a full-fledged flower of change. Although we do not know the future of ethanol subsidies, the message to cut the programs has been sent. It is this experience that has deepened my belief in Oxfam and has sparked an even bigger excitement  to further and build a bigger and stronger Bay Area Action Corps.

Nickolas Johnson with Oxfam staff at the GROW launch on Capital Hill