World Food Day Events: Boston, New York City, and Chicago, and more!

World Food Day is just over a week away!  What will you be doing to celebrate?  Why not attend one of these unique and exciting events before or after hosting your own Sunday Dinner?!  A GROW training session in Boston, a film screening and discussion in New York City, and a Crop Mob in Chicago!  Not near any of these cities?  Check the ACT FAST event calendar, Change the World: Start Here, to see what is happening in your area!  


Boston: 

The Boston Oxfam Action Corps is a group of people from diverse backgrounds who come together as volunteers to help Oxfam campaign and win policies that will help tackle hunger and poverty on a global scale.

Join us for a special gathering this World Food Day, October 16. Together with Oxfam's senior organizing staff, we will provide an afternoon training on Oxfam's new campaign on global hunger – GROW – dedicated to taking action for food, fairness and the future of our planet. This is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to learn more, meet other Oxfam supporters and get involved.

The training includes an optional dinner to celebrate World Food Day. We hope you can join us.

What: Free training for Oxfam supporters in the Boston area. 

Topics: We will learn about the GROW campaign, share ideas and make plans to address global hunger through action with Oxfam Action Corps in Boston. 

Who: You! Open to Oxfam supporters, members and leaders of allied organizations. Also feel free to bring friends who are equally committed to fighting hunger and poverty. 

When: Sunday, October 16. The training is from 1:30-5:30pm. This will be followed by an optional dinner with tasty food and a chance to chat informally. 

Where: Oxfam America's office – 226 Causeway St., 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02114. 

Cost: Free. The training and dinner are free of charge. Bring yourself and come ready to participate! 

RSVP: Please click here to RSVP online (or email me the organizers boston@oxfamactioncorps.org). Specify whether you will attend the optional dinner and if you have any dietary restrictions. Please be sure any interested friends do the same. 

For more information: If you have questions about the training, please contact Oxfam's Brittany Collins at bcollins@oxfamamerica.org and 617-517-9439.

This is a great opportunity to join a community of action with Oxfam in Boston. We hope to see you there!

Emily Hubbard and Christine Ellersick, Oxfam Lead Volunteer Organizers

New York City: 

Oxfam Action Corps NYC, together with American Jewish World Service, The Hunger Project's Young Professionals Committee, and Union Theological Seminary, is hosting a US film premiere and discussion about how to change our global food system.  Check it out and learn more about why this issue is so important and what you can do to help.

What: World Food Day celebration and film premiere, discussion and recipe tasting.  The film, “Hunger in a World of Plenty,” addresses why, in a world that has enough resources to feed 12 billion people, nearly one billion people are chronically hungry.

When: Sunday, October 16 at 4:00pm – doors open at 3:30.

Where: James Memorial Chapel at Union Theological Seminary, 3041 Broadway at 121^st Street, New York City

Speakers: We’ll hear from Dr. Idrissa Dicko, Vice President for Africa Programs with The Hunger Project, Stephanie Ives, Director of Education and Community Engagement with American Jewish World Service and Rohit Malpani, Senior Campaigns Advisor with Oxfam America, who will discuss topics addressed in the film and ways in which attendees can take action on a local level.

Cosponsors: This event is cosponsored by the Brooklyn Food Coalition, Buddhist Global Relief, DIG (Development in Gardening), FeelGood Columbia University, the Hunger and Environmental Nutrition Special Interest Group of the Greater New York Dietetic Association, the International Youth Council, the Small Planet Institute and WhyHunger.

RSVP: This event is free and open to the public – please RSVP today.

Want to help prepare some of the tasting dishes for the event?  Please contact Arielle Cahill Hassid at newyorkcity@oxfamactioncorps.org.

Chicago: 

Join us for the second annual Crop Mob to Spence Farm!  Sponsored by Chicago Oxfam Action Corps, White Oak Gourmet, and the Spence Farm Foundation, we'll be celebrating World Food Day helping out on the farm.

Click Here to Register on Eventbrite

You'll be joining other Chicago area residents who are committed to a sustainable food supply. We'll be taking a bus from Chicago to Spence Farm 100 miles south of Chicago. Spence Farm in Livingston County was first settled in 1830. You'll be joining the Travis Family; Marty, Kris, and Will, descendants of the original settlers. We'll assist them with harvesting organic farm produce and with fall clean-up chores around the farm. Spence Farm supplies leading restaurants in Chicago like Frontera Grill and Blackbird with specialty produce and its famous Iroquois corn.

Because the farms are typically family owned and operated, most of the labor is done by hand. The term "Crop Mob" was coined by city dwellers who have an interest in sustainable agriculture and would like to help more than just by going to the farmer's market or joining a CSA. The "Crop Mob" gives the farmer(s) a valuable source of volunteer labor.

You'll need to bring the following for the trip:

• Packed Lunch
• Hand held gardening or pruning shears to help with the harvestng
• Sturdy shoes or boots and a change of socks.
• Gardening or work gloves.
• A re-fillable water bottle.
• A hat & sunscreen.
• A sweater or light jacket.
• Snacks for the trip down and return home.
• Money in case you'd like purchase some products from the farm. 

Spence Farm will provide beverages and snacks.

Children are welcome, however, but because the bus trip is 2 hours, and the inherent risks of working on a farm, this trip is more appropriate for children over 12 years of age.

The bus will depart from City Provisions Deli & Catering, located at 1818 W. Wilson, Chicago (Ravenswood) at 9:00 a.m., so please arrive No Later than 8:30 a.m


For those traveling to City Provisions via the CTA, they are just steps away from the Damen Brown Line stop, and the Damen bus. For those in vehicles, There's parking for your car anywhere in the gravel parking lot behind the shop (please don't park under the EL! City Provisions cannot be responsible for damage caused by tar falling from the tracks). For those on bikes, there are ample bike racks to lock your bike securely for the duration of the day.


Questions, need to carpool in from the 'burbs?  Don't hesitate to phone Organizer Tom Leavitt at 847-754-0708.

Click Here to Register on Eventbrite

"Imagine if food could talk. What would your rice tell you?"

This World Food Day, dedicate your dinner to the farmers who produced the food on your plate.  

Oxfam America is teaming up with a host of allies across the US and around the globe.  We have a simple yet compelling idea—to host a Sunday Dinner October 16 that fosters a conversation about where your food comes from, who cultivates it, and how we can make the food system more just and sustainable.  Order your free materials by October 12.  


Archbishop Desmond Tutu, food activist and author Frances Moore Lappé, and activist and organic farmer Ellen Walsh-Rosmann invite you to host your own Sunday Dinner:

How to host a Sunday Dinner:

• Decide what kind of gathering you want. How many people? What kind of food? Have a potluck and ask everyone to bring their favorite dish. You can also make a dish contributed by chefs such as Giada De Laurentiis, Mark Bittman, Eric Yost, José Andrés , and the Mennonite Central Committee, or these cheap recipes for Slow Food USA's $5 Challenge.
• Decide on the time and place and get the word out in order to get your guest count.
• Order Free Materials for your dinner by Oct. 12. We have World Food Day place mats to use at your table and sets of recipe cards to give out to your guests. For large events we have posters, stickers, and more.
• Use our Sunday Dinner Discussion Guide to facilitate the conversation during your dinner.
• Before your guests leave, ask them to join the Oxfam America Mobile Action Network. Text OXFAM to 30644 and we’ll send you critical updates about how you can help during global emergencies, take action when Congress is debating important legislation, and join us when there are Oxfam events in your area. Text STOP at any time to unsubscribe.

Seattle supporters get together for GROW campaign

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Seattle, Oxfam Action Corps hosted a training on the GROW campaign.  Oxfam supporters and friends from various organizations got together to discuss how best to address the root causes of global hunger, speaking and learing from a wealth of experience and perspectives.  Our group included students, retirees, doctors, researchers, musician-moms, and even newlyweds!   Thank to all for spending your sunny afternoon indoors with us.  Special thanks also to members of the Borgen Project and Global Washington for participating.

We’re looking forward to making an impact together. Anyone who wants to get started right away can click here to download materials to host a World Food Day Sunday Dinner in October, and to sign-up online for updates and invites from the Seattle Oxfam Action Corps.
 

"Memorable," "Powerful," Life-changing"

That's how people describe an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet event. 

Oxfam Action Corps members, along with hundreds of Oxfam supporters nationwide, will organize events like these in October and November.  Will you too?

Click here to host one in your community.

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)

Spreading GROW Message with Ra Ra Riot!

by Brittany Collins, Oxfam America Community Engagement Intern

                Chilling with rock stars while saving the world—aka, just another day at my internship.  On Friday August 12, I had my first Oxfam America concert volunteering opportunity.  Ra Ra Riot, Jack's Mannequin, and Guster partnered with Reverb, a non-profit based in Portland, Maine that strives to make concert tours as environmentally friendly as possible, for their summer tour.  In turn, Reverb invited Oxfam America to table at their shows.  My favorite part of the Reverb concert experience?  Two words: free water.  Not being forced to pay five bucks for a bottle of water when you already have your own reusable, eco-friendly water bottle is, to borrow from Maine’s state motto, the way life should be.  I was also very encouraged to hear that a good number of the concert-goers had participated in the ride-share program to arrive to the show. 

                We tabled alongside Climate Counts, a non-profit that assigns scores to companies across the globe on their climate impact in an effort to encourage consumers to be conscious and make informed purchases as well as to urge the companies themselves to be environmentally responsible.  With such environmentally-friendly people surrounding us, Oxfam America was excited to bring an international perspective to the table (pun intended). 

                Oxfam America’s Senior Advisor of Music Outreach, Bob Ferguson, held down our table while my friend, Oxfam America volunteer Delia Harrington, and I canvassed the crowd informing concert-goers about global food injustice and specifically the Herger-Crowley Ethanol Subsidy Repeal Act (HR 2307) that Oxfam America supports.  We collected 120 petition signatures in support of HR 2307 (show your support by signing the online petition!).  We were thrilled to see that most people were very receptive to the GROW campaign as a whole and supportive of ending tax credits and subsidies to the corn ethanol industry.  Many were unaware that diverting cropland to ethanol production is one major cause of rising food prices that are putting basic food staples out of reach for the world’s poorest people.

Volunteer Delia Harrington and Community Engagement Intern Brittany Collins 
with Ra Ra Riot at the Oxfam America booth

                The highlight of the night (barely edging out our giving a pair of Guster Meet and Greet passes to two incredibly appreciative diehard Guster fans/Oxfam supporters) was hosting dedicated Oxfam supporters Ra Ra Riot at our table for an autograph signing.  Fans lined up and inquired about Oxfam while waiting for their chance to chat with Ra Ra.  It’s great to have an awesome band like them on board with us-- we immensely appreciate their support and are excited to continue working with them in the future! 

                Ra Ra Riot, Jack’s Mannequin, and Guster all put on excellent shows, and the night was capped off with a hilarious surprise appearance by “Saturday Night Live” star Will Forte, who performed a unique rendition of Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is” with Guster.  All in all, an amazing evening of spreading Oxfam’s message and experiencing great performances!  

Inspiring Action at the Core of CHANGE

by Caitlin DiMaina, Oxfam America Community Engagement Intern

     I stood behind a table covered in Oxfam Action Corps and GROW materials, munching on some sweet barbeque at dusk on a Sunday in July at Eastern Nazarene College, just south of Boston in Quincy, MA. Sprawled over picnic tables, benches, and the grass were over 60 people, including a group of 50 college students; Oxfam America staff and interns, and facilitators for the CHANGE Initiative 2011. This is the highly competitive national student leadership program that trains college students to become actively engaged with Oxfam America’s work. Its goals: to broaden perspectives, inspire action, and shape a new generation of global citizens.

Tabling for new 2011 CHANGE leaders at the barbecue. 

     From my vantage point behind the table about Action Corps grassroots organizing, it was a fantastic view. I saw passionate college students engaging in stimulating conversation about world issues such as extractive industries and food justice, the grassroots growing before my eyes. Dreams to create change were bubbling up and over, flooding into solid ideas for action on college campuses across the U.S.

     The Oxfam Action Corps together with CHANGE Leaders make the perfect combination to build our constituency and reach out to youth and adults alike. From taking political action by advocating for Oxfam’s campaigns to members of Congress, to organizing tabling at concerts and holding awareness events on campus, these two groups help Oxfam cast a wide net to not only garner support, but also encourage others to ACT FAST and live Oxfam’s mission.

     This week our goal is to get these two groups of activists connected and talking. We’re making some introductions via email and can’t wait to see the new additions to our ‘Oxfamily’ begin to work together to end poverty and injustice.  

For your reference, below is the list of the colleges and universities of the 2011CHANGE Leaders; for the Oxfam Action Corps cities, please see the left sidebar on this blog for a list linked to each city's own blog or Facebook.

                                                                                         

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Loyola University Maryland

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Macalester College

Elon University

University of Vermont

St. Michael's College

University of South Florida

Buena Vista University

University of Iowa

University of Idaho

DePaul University

Northwestern University

Indiana University

Washburn University

Berea College

Union College

Tulane University

Loyola Marymount University

University of California Santa Cruz

University of Southern California

Wesleyan University

Boston University

Northeastern University

Smith College

SUNY Stoney Brook

The New School

Samford University

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Arizona State University

American University

Georgetown University

North Dakota State University

University of New Hampshire

The College of William and Mary

Virginia Tech

West Virginia Wesleyan College

University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Rider University

Bucknell University

Delaware Valley College

Villanova University

University of Tennessee-Knoxville

University of Texas, Austin

University of Wyoming

University of New Mexico

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

John Carroll University

Ohio University

Ohio State University