Iowa Action Corps Goes Local

This post "GROWing a Better Tomorrow" was featured in the Iowa Action Corps blog on Tuesday, July 3rd.  Read on to take a look at how Iowa is supporting local farmers!

Crystal used the tiller to prepare the
soil for beans. Check out
that backdrop of
corn nearly ready for harvesting!

On June 26^th, Oxfam volunteers Crystal and Mindi (as well as co-organizers Amy Luebbert and Lance Massey) headed to St. Timothy’s Faith and Grace Garden in West Des Moines for a little community garden action. The 40,000 square foot garden supports local food pantries, community centers, as well as a family violence shelter by producing tons of fresh produce annually. So far in 2012, over 1500 pounds has been grown and harvested. With the love, care, and sweat equity put into this garden by so many volunteers, tonight fewer people have to go to bed hungry. 

That’s how you GROW a better tomorrow!

Mindi place the pole beans in the trenches
on either side of the supporting fence. We
covered the beans up a little later. It'll
be fun to see how much they've grown
next time we go out to the garden!

Oxfam Iowa Volunteers: Mindi, Crystal, Lance, and Amy

Have a great GROW friendly activity happening in your city? Have a stand-out blog you'd like to share? Send it on to actioncorps@oxfamamerica.org and see your post here!

My Week on the GROW Method: Part 3!

By Zoe Johannas, Community Engagement Intern

In this thrilling conclusion to My Week on the GROW Method, I discuss how I achieved the last two GROW Method goals while fighting off laziness and cooking great food.

And this brings us to my third, but maybe not final, grocery store struggle. You see, It’s not that I can’t cook when I put my mind to it, but more that I tend to make only 3 things for lunch- 2 of which end in sandwich. While sandwiches are great and all, they do leave a lot to be desired in variety category. No matter how much I think I want to cook myself a well-rounded meal and use foreign items such as colanders, and spatulas, and stove tops, I inevitably wind up using nothing but a fork and a microwave. So to take on the GROW method I readily embraced the cook smart axiom. I felt more than ready to learn some minimum energy recipes that translated directly into speedy prep times. To round out my GROW Method, I less readily, but just as determinedly, I decided to cut down on my meat and animal product intake as well.

Though I eat very little meat besides my beloved cold cut sandwiches, this is really just because I don’t feel like cooking, not because I think about the necessity of saving water and resources. So even though I don’t eat much as is, I felt that I ought to do what I could to be conscious about my choices, while attempting to expand my puny recipe repertoire. Though for a while I feared that this would mean my ham and cheese sandwiches would simply morph into PB&J’s, I instead decided to actually use some of the Oxfam resources I spend my days promoting.

 If you have yet to visit Oxfam America’s Pinterest site, I cannot suggest it more. I credit this site for not only   luring me in with its mouth-watering recipes but inspiring me to hunt down some of my own! With a couple quick clicks I ended up finding some delicious, gluten free and foolproof recipes that allowed me to give the lunch meat a rest.

Though I’ll always have my ham and cheese sandwiches to fall back on, I found new recipes that are not   only giving me some much needed variety in my limited meal set, but also all take under fifteen minutes to prepare. Who knew cooking smart and being incredibly lazy could go together so well? Some favorite new dishes I stumbled across were avocado soup, kale chips, and burritos as a way to eat basically all leftovers. I managed to eat better, cook better, and make better choices at the grocery store all as a result of applying the sustainable GROW Method. 

Applying the GROW Method encourages me to pay more attention to the products I buy and use them to eat better. Every aspect that I thought would be a burden turned out to only help me make better choices. Though I did not have to sacrifice much, I did gain a new awareness of the importance of my choices and how easy it was for me to concentrate on everything but the specifics of my shopping. And while I will probably always wince at the thought of my weekly grocery adventures, I can now safely say that implementing the GROW Method will be the least of my struggles.

Now it's your turn! Tell us what you've done to make the GROW Method work for you! How are you spreading the word to your friends and families? Give us your stories, tips, ideas, and experiences! Send them to actioncorps@oxfamamerica.org and see them posted here!

My Week on the GROW Method: Part 2

By Zoe Johannas, Community Engagement Intern


For this post, the 2nd of my 3 GROW Method blogs, I'll get into how I managed to fit in the cost of GROW on my college kid budget. Check out my previous post to see how I handled reducing my food waste, an integral part of the GROW Method!

Now here we come to my second grocery store struggle. No matter how much I prepare beforehand, whether I try list-making, pre-shopping protein shakes, or careful, strategic stretching, I inevitably crave every single snack food that I lay my eyes on. From chips, to fruit snacks, to wasabi peas my cravings rotate with every passing aisle. Thankfully, I can usually depend on my wobbly will-power to push me past the yogurt covered yummies, but I always falter as I round the corner to the dairy aisle.

I don't know what it is about me and my cheese, but I can never seem to escape the grocery store without three different kinds. I mean, I always have to pick up some basic cheddar. It's just a simple snacking necessity. And then I obviously need some Parmesan for my go-to, throw on all cooked meals type of cheese. But what about salads! I love feta on fresh summer salads! Oh is that Swiss?

The only thing keeping me in check in the sight of all that is Wisconsin-made and wonderful, is my fat brown wallet, filled to capacity with discount cards, yet almost completely void of cash. So as I took on the task of trying to stay seasonal and fair trade on top of already being gluten free, I was concerned that adding the GROW Method would be a precarious weight to balance on my already wobbly grocery bill. 

As it turned out, shopping with the GROW Method took more of a toll on my schedule than my wallet. For this first round of GROW Method shopping, it took some time to check the labels on various items, to hunt down the local produce, and to weed through the cheaper, bigger, shinier jumbo fruits. The result however, was a delicious arrangement of fruits and veggies. Though slightly smaller and mercifully less shiny, they added up to only a few dollars more at the check-out. 

 Those extra dollars weren’t too bad this time around, but in the future I think that I could eliminate this too by cutting back in other areas. After all, I could have probably cut out the feta. Wait, no, not the feta. Maybe the Swiss. 

Have some other ways to shop GROW on a budget? I could certainly use them! Email us at actioncorps@oxfamamerica.org with your tips and strategies, or share as a comment on this blog!

My Week on the GROW Method

By Zoe Johannas, Community Engagement Intern

With the launch of the GROW Method last week, I figured it was time to turn theory into practice with my next trip to the grocery store. Over 3 blog posts I'll discuss my 3 worst grocery store habits, and how I've traded them in for something more GROW friendly. 

Now grocery shopping always provides somewhat of a struggle for me. First and foremost, there’s the challenge of cooking for one person in a land of buy one get twos. You see, it’s not that I don’t want the whole crate of potatoes for the price of three spuds, it’s just that one must be realistic when dealing with 4 square feet of kitchen space. 

Not only do I have a kitchen smaller than most closets, but I also have the appetite of just one very medium-sized human, not a bouncy, bubbly family of 6-8. As it turns out, there are very few packaged goods that claim "serves one". 

 

Luckily, this challenge becomes a solution in light of the GROW Method. Buying only what I need and eating up what I already have is key to reducing waste, and surprisingly simple. While it may have taken some self-monitoring to not look at a super-sized jar of spaghetti sauce and think, “YES! What a deal!” I instead bought the smaller, individually manageable portions. 

While it initially felt like I was buying less for more, I realized that I was probably actually saving money by buying a cup that I would finish, instead of a quart that I would throw away half of. All those hugely portioned items were only taking up space that I can’t spare, and wasting too many valuable resources that we can't afford to use up. 

When it comes down to it, maybe that whole potato crate isn’t worth it after all. Unless, of course, I plan on eating solely baked potatoes for the next 6-9 weeks, then I still think it’s a pretty great deal.

If I could manage to get the GROW Method to work for me, I have no doubt that you could too!

Have a great GROW tip? Share it with us at actioncorps@oxfamamerica.org!

4 Tips for an Electrifying Monthly Meeting

In my first three weeks with Oxfam I have heard from most of our 15 Action Corps cities about how they are taking on monthly meetings. Getting these monthly meetings to go smoothly is no easy task – balancing the fun with business, catering to newbies as well as old hands, watching the clock and competing with café noise! So I really took notice when Action Corps in San Francisco sent an email about their “amazing!” meeting of nine volunteers that still had them reverberating with energy the following day!

We asked Amy Torregrossa from the SF Bay Area Action Corps to share tips on how she and her co-leader Jessica Shao pulled it off:

1. Relaxed atmosphere: We went to a tea house in the mission. It was very relaxing but intimate and we were all sitting around a round table, so there was not a "classroom feel". I think if we were in a room where there was an obvious "front" to it, where Jessica and I would naturally occupy, then it would have been a very different feel. It was nice to all be at the same level.

2. Short but important agenda: Jessica printed an agenda that had 4 sections: Introductions, Ray Offenheiser's visit, Upcoming Opportunities and Brainstorming. It all fit on a small sheet. This helped because everyone knew what to anticipate at the beginning of the meeting but the agenda was also flexible enough that it allowed people to voice their ideas and opinions.

3. Ask not Tell: I think this was one of the main aspects of the meeting. After we spoke about a subject, for example, the pot luck, we asked for feedback and opinions before making a decision. Nothing felt top down, each decision was very much organic.

4. Action Items: After each section we made sure that an action item was discussed and delegated, no matter how small. It made the meeting have a purpose.The result was a meeting in which members were "extremely engaged."



 Do you have a tried and true method in your city? Feel free to share them with us at actioncorps@oxfamamerica.org.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon!
Zoe

Amy and Jessica from San Francisco at the DC Training! 

Come to the World Food Prize Summit – apply by Monday, August 20

As an Oxfam GROW campaigner, there may be no better place to deepen your knowledge than at the World Food Prize’s 2012 Borlaug Dialogue, and related events to be held in Iowa October 17-19.  Oxfam’s President Ray Offenheiser, as well as partners from farming communities in Nigeria and Burkina Faso will speak at the symposium and at a special side event organized by Oxfam staff. Also, for the first time ever Oxfam will host and serve a GROW themed meal at the summit.

That's why we want to bring a team of YOU to this event, to learn intensively, support Oxfam’s activities, and share the learning with everyone in the Oxfam Action Corps via video, blog, etc.  We will fund travel, registration and related expenses for 4 Action Corps members.   (And of course, anyone who is able to fund their own way is welcome to register and join us there).  

Oxfam Action Corps Iowa is leading volunteer shifts at the Oxfam table and organizing a 200+ person Hunger Banquet on-site.   Additional Oxfam events may include tabling at the Des Moines Farmers Market and more.

Here’s what Desiree Thayer, San Francisco Bay Area Oxfam Action Corps organizer, wrote about the summit last year .

HOW TO APPLY FOR TRAVEL FUNDS (deadline is Monday, August 20):

Send an email to Brian and cc Clara by Monday, August 20.  In your email, tell us briefly (no essays required!):

a) Your availability to attend from Wednesday morning to Saturday evening, Oct 17-20.  Also tell us if you would be able to come a day earlier to attend an informal get together with Oxfam staff on Tuesday afternoon Oct 16.
b) Why you want to attend
c) What you hope to learn, and how you will share that knowledge with other Oxfam Action Corps members, and
d) Any relevant background on the issues that you wish to share.

Alternatively, you can apply by filling out this GoogleForm.

We will base selection on past and future (potential) leadership with Oxfam Action Corps, a keen desire to learn about these issues, and, finally, ability to attend the entire conference.  We will announce our selections on Monday, August 27 and book travel immediately after.

EVEN IF YOU CAN’T COME, TUNE IN!  We’ll share highlights from the summit via livestream, webinar, and other means, so we’re eager to enable all of you to connect, whether you are in Iowa or not.

Philadelphia Oxfam Action Corps

Cheryl Dunn is an active Oxfam Action Corps volunteer and organizer based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Here is a great post from the Oxfam On Tour blog she has written on music, Oxfam, and how she decided to take action . 

Oxfam has been a huge part of my life since 2006 when I heard Chris Martin say for the 100th time “Please look at Make Trade Fair dot com, and please more chocolate, and please listen to more Coldplay” in the beginning of “Amsterdam” from their live album. So I went to MakeTradeFair.com and I got lost in all the information Oxfam had about Fair Trade vs. Free Trade.

On Oxfam’s website I saw the opportunity to volunteer at a Coldplay show, so I signed up for the North Jersey show. After writing a long speech about how much I love Coldplay, Oxfam, and how passionate I was about the campaign in my application, I found out I was chosen to volunteer at the show. Working that first Coldplay show and talking to people about Oxfam was incredible. I couldn’t believe I could help one of my favourite bands make such a huge difference in the world, and get to talk to so many other awesome fans and get them passionate about it too.

There I met a member of the Oxfam America team who contacted me about volunteering at the Warped Tour in NJ. I jumped at the opportunity. That day we were collecting petition signatures asking the government to change how the Farm Bill was written to help small farmers have an opportunity to compete. Around that time I was feeling a little overwhelmed with global problems, I was feeling really small and started doubting whether I, as one person, could really help. That day, not only did we get over 100 petition signatures from music fans, I had two girls come up to me and thank me for what I was doing. They lived on a small farm and said that if the bill passed as it was currently written, they would lose their farm. That moment moved me. I realize that I could really help change the world as one person, because as one person I can collect over 100 other voices, and those voices can tell other people, who can tell more. We need more people to make these voices heard and show our leaders that we are paying attention and we do care.

Two summers later I applied and got accepted to be one of 50 university students around the US to go to Boston for Oxfam America’s CHANGE program. For a week we went through training on campaigning, advocacy, and lobbying as well as Oxfam’s work and how we can help. We learned the tools we needed to go back to our campuses and run a group focused on social justice. I started “Students for Social Justice” at Philadelphia University. During the training I met people from all over who are so different but completely connected on one thing, the want to change the world for the better. I highly recommend it for all Freshman and Sophomores in university!

Oxfam America also have the Action Corps programme, these are groups of volunteers who represent Oxfam in their local areas.  I joined the Philadelphia Action Corps and have since volunteered at countless concerts, local events and marathons, and met incredible people. We meet at different member's houses or local universities and watch short films on global issues and have letter-writing parties to our local representatives. After five years of being in the Philadelphia Action Corps. I am a co-leader with my friend Lindsy for the next year.

Lindsy and I volunteered at the Philly Coldplay shows and had the opportunity once again to talk to their awesome fans about the GROW campaign. Seeing Coldplay live again just made me so grateful that they were the ones who introduced me to Oxfam and all the great work they do. Seeing their thousands of fans in that arena watching Chris jumping and dancing around the stage with the Oxfam logo on his tee shirt made me so proud that one of my favorite bands are still using their voices to raise awareness about important issues, encourage their fans to do something about it. So please go to OxfamAmerica.org, please eat more chocolate, and please listen to more Coldplay- it may change your life, and the world, for the better!

Thanks,

Cheryl