Festival Diaries Part 1 - Outside Lands

The Oxfam Action Corps have had a busy summer of outreach at festivals, concerts, and farmers' markets. Check out this great blog post from our San Francisco action corps team on their time at Outside Lands

via http://sfbay-oxfamactioncorps.blogspot.com/2013/08/festival-diaries-part-i-outside-lands.html

Festival Diaries Part I - Outside Lands

It's always a special feeling to be a part of the small group that gets to see what's behind the curtain. At our first day at Outside Lands, we got to do just that. Arriving before the gates officially opened, we wandered across Golden Gate Park's lush fields passing the eager vendors and awing at the eerie void left by the lack of people crowded around porta potties. We slowly made our way to the Oxfam booth conveniently located next to one of the festival's most dance worthy stages. It began to feel a lot like the calm before a storm.
From the swelling crowds, we were lucky enough to meet amazing people from across the globe some of whom were familiar with Oxfam's work and others who were eager to learn more by participating in one of our many booth games including our latest Bay Area Action Corps invention,World Hunger Pong, inspired by the collegiate, Olympian level sport that we're all familiar with Beer Pong. Except instead of beer, we provided striking facts about the hunger epidemic including the fact that hunger kills more people than AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis combined. We also spoke to countless people about the Behind the Brands campaign and how the top ten food and beverage companies in the world are performing when it comes to transparency and the treatment of farmers, workers, women, land, water and climate. Adding strength to the 115,000 people who have already joined the movement to change the way these companies do business, concert goers helped Oxfam move closer to its 125,000 signature goal. If you haven't yet joined the movement, its not too late: www.behindthebrands.org

This year at Outside Lands, the Oxfam Bay Area Action Corps reached hundreds of people all while having a great time and listening to some of today's most influential artists, including Sir Paul McCartney himself and long-time Oxfam activist Thao Nguyen of San Francisco's very own Thao and The Get Down Stay Down.
It's no secret that the Bay Area is home to some amazing festivals and members of the Oxfam Bay Area Action Corps are lucky enough to take part in some of the best of the best.

Members of the Oxfam Action Corps have the unique opportunity to join forces with people passionate about making world hunger obsolete. Together we work to inform concert goers about the devastating conditions of extreme poverty, hunger and injustice around the world. Stories are shared, friends are made and minds are enlightened.

If you're feeling like you missed out? Never feel that way again. Be a part of our next concert event by emailing us at sanfrancisco@oxfamactioncorps.org.

We'd love for you to join the Oxfam Bay Area Action Corps family for the Treasure Island Music Festival, Ra Ra Riot's upcoming show at the Fillmore or Ben Sollee's intimate performance in Oakland. 

Behind the Brands Targeted Action

Visitors to the Behind the Brands website will find that it now features  top asks for each of the targeted 10 companies. Each company is called out for the #1 area  across the 7 measured fields (land, water, women, climate, transparency, farmers, & workers) where they need to improve their score.  The 'take action' tab specifically calls for General Mills, who scored the lowest on transparency, to stop the secrecy. The only statistics on its ingredient sourcing available to the public are about palm oil. It's time for General Mills to publish its ingredient sourcing so consumers can know if their favorite brands are being produced ethically.

The good news is that your support for Behind the Brands is not going unnoticed - Unilever recently made public commitments to sign the UN Women's Empowerment Principles, to work to increase economic inclusion and employment opportunities open to women, and to help build their capacity in areas such as financial literacy. Additionally Coca Cola, whose poor performance on land rights and support for small scale farmers kept it from the top of our scorecard, made new public commitments to sustainable agriculture! Coming off the success of the first Behind the Brands initiative to the top 3 chocolate companies (Nestle, Mars, & Mondelez) to commit to ensuring women cocoa farmers in their supply chains are treated fairly, this news is proof that the power of you is working.  

Please join in and help improve our food system. Make a buzz by tweeting the messages below and asking your followers to do the same!

For Twitter:

Who will be top of the #BehindtheBrands scorecard at the next update? Make it your favorite brand http://bit.ly/YUIkn6 

Hey @GeneralMills, my @Cheerios would taste better if I knew where they came from! Publish your ingredient sourcing! #BehindtheBrands 

Well done @Unilever for committing to do right by women & thanks to all #BehindtheBrands supporters for helping make it happen!  http://bit.ly/18Dnlva

Kudos to @cocacola on new commitments to sustainable agriculture! Why not build on that now by joining industry efforts to support small farmers #BehindtheBrands http://bit.ly/12FZJkW

Boston Action Corps Highlight!

Check out this great post from one of our Boston Action Corps volunteers on  recent concert outreach for Food Aid Reform!

(via http://bostonoxfamactioncorps.blogspot.com/)

Fitz and the Tantrums Help Food Aid Reform

June 28th, Oxfam Action Corps volunteers had the exciting opportunity to collect petition signatures for Oxfam's Reform Food Aid Campaign.  Did you know it takes on average 4 to 6 months for lifesaving foodstuffs to make it to countries with starving populations? Half a year is a long time to wait for basic necessities.  Luckily Oxfam is working to raise awareness and change the way the United States gives food aid to countries around the world. By growing crops locally we can empower native farmers and double the amount of food that gets to people who need it. Fitz and the Tantrums understand the importance of food justice, and their fans are big supporters as well!

We arrived at the Paradise Rock Club right at 6 PM and met some of Fitz's bandmates and his tour manager, Kenny.  Some of the biggest Fitz and the Tantrums fans had been there since 1 PM! Before the show began, people in line outside and having drinks at the venue were alreadyexcited to sign the Food Aid petition! We had about 30 signatures before the bands played their first song.  Two of our supporters were already huge fans of Oxfam - instead of a wedding registry, they had friends and family donate to Oxfam using our Oxfam Unwrapped wedding gift ideas (and you can too)!  Once the show started, we set up our Oxfam table by the merchandise area and greeted the concert goers!  People who were waiting in line for merchandise from the awesome opening act, Ivy Levan were excited to hear more about food aid and sign the petition. 

At 10 PM, Fitz and the Tantrums came on and they were definitely a crowd-pleaser.  They played hits off their new album, More Than Just a Dream, and mixed in some of their best songs from Pickin' Up the Pieces.  Everyone danced along to Out of My League and Rich Girls.  The band was so great that the audience got them to come back out for a 3-song encore and everyone sang along to my favorite song, MoneyGrabber.  As the band started finishing up, people lined up again to get signatures and photos.  We used this line once again to our advantage and even got Fitz and the Tantrums to sign! We collected 90 signatures at the concert, listened to some great music, and handed out lots of Oxfam information.  It was a great concert and we are so happy to have Fitz and the Tantrums support Oxfam's amazing mission!

Our biggest tip to future concert liasons is to use LINES to your advantage. People waiting to get into the concert, to buy a t-shirt, or to meet the band, are just future petition-signers you haven't met yet!.


Francesca Villa
Oxfam Action Corps Volunteer

Make a Call Today! Promote Life-saving Food Aid Reform!

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BREAKING: House to vote on food aid reform any moment Call your U.S. representative now to ask them to support reforms that will deliver aid more quickly and more effectively to save more lives. Just call 1-888-404-5166 now to connect with your member of Congress for free! There's very little time, and this is VERY important: The House is about to vote on an amendment to the farm bill that would radically improve the way the US provides food aid. Oxfam has been working on fixing our government's broken food aid policies for years, and we've never had a chance like this. This amendment would feed 4 million more people a year at no additional cost to taxpayers. But for this amendment to pass, we need your U.S. representative's support. Seize the moment with us – make a call to reform food aid now! To make your call, just dial 1-888-404-5166 and follow the prompts to connect to your Representative. Then, tell the staffer: "My name is____, and I'm a supporter of Oxfam America, calling from _______ to ask that my Representative vote YES on the Royce-Engel Food Aid Reform Amendment to the Farm Bill. It's bipartisan, and the amendment will save lives and money – it will ensure that the US government has the flexibility it needs to provide lifesaving emergency food assistance where it's needed most, in the fastest and most cost effective way. Will my Representative be supporting this amendment?" If your call doesn't go through on the first try, that just means momentum is building and so many people are calling that the line is busy – wait two minutes and then try again! This is our chance to fix a huge problem with US government food aid – and help it reach millions more people. Will you make a ca;l? Thanks in advance for your time – your words will make a HUGE difference in this fight. Sincerely, Oxfam America Advocacy Fund Want to keep this work going? The Oxfam America Advocacy Fund is powered entirely by supporters like you. Every dollar goes towards fixing the laws and policies that keep people in poverty – contribute now.

Reforming US Food Aid: Petition Deliveries in Full Swing!

Changing the way that the US distributes foreign food aid has been a priority for Oxfam America for years. For too long, US food assistance has come in the form of American wheat and produce shipped overseas and flooding foreign markets, taking several weeks to arrive and then competing with goods from local small-holder farmers.

This year President Obama proposed an overhaul of this system where 45% of US food aid would be delivered in the form of food bought in local markets to give to impoverished people in the region. This way, not only would hungry people get more food assistance, faster, but American dollars would help stimulate local economies and enable them to bolster US trade in the future.

Unfortunately, not everyone seed food aid this way, so this week the Oxfam Action Corps has begun paying visits to their local congressional offices to explain the benefits of Obama's proposal and tell their senators and representatives that food aid reform matters to them.

In just under two weeks the Action Corps has visited 26 offices! Including democrats, republicans, supporters, opponents, and potential champions! A special shout-out is deserved to our San Francisco team who had a member-level meeting with Representative Thompson, who agreed to co-sponsor the Royce-Bass Bill, way to go SF!

There are still offices to visit, calls to be made, and petitions to sign so we are not satisfied yet! Get involved today by calling your representative and explaining why reforming food aid matters to you. For more information email actioncorps.oxfam@gmail.com and sign the online petition: here

Highlight Reel 2012-2013

Oxfam Action Corps celebrates its 7th annual training and lobby day

Oxfam Action Corps celebrated its 7^th annual training in April in Washington DC, convening 29 participants from 15 US cities, including educators, nurses, veterans, lawyers, political consultants, construction workers, and people from many other backgrounds.  Action Corps members held three days of training and one day of lobbying, and are now committed to coordinate Oxfam America outreach and campaign activities in their city in the coming year.

Many thanks to all the people who made this possible, including our presenters, training support, lobby day participants, and lobby day logistics support. And most of all our volunteer, trained grassroots advocates! Oxfam Action Corps is a program that is based on the power of people to work together to bring about change, specifically with Oxfam’s campaigns.  Without the amazing collaboration between Oxfam staff and Oxfam Action Corps members it would not have been possible.  


Caption:  Nancy Delaney of Community Engagement orients trainees. (Photo: Brian Rawson)

For our lobby day this year we were fortunate to team up with Oxfam 'Sisters on the Planet' Ambassadors, the Truman Fellows Program, and other allies on our lobby day, for a combined total of 80 visits.  At our joint reception, Oxfam VP Paul O’Brien highlighted the power of this collaboration and the serendipitous timing of the lobby day, with our constituents being among the first to respond to President Obama's Budget Request the prior week. Our supporters capitalized on the President’s request for food aid reform, and called upon Congressional offices to support poverty-focused foreign aid and food aid reform.  In one out of many highlights from the day, the Congressional staffer for Agriculture Committee member Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) flipped through a list of Oxfam petition signers to find the name of the Congresswoman's daughter!


Pictured:  Sen. Feinstein staffperson Mr. Harper (center) accepts petitions from (left to right) Sameerah Siddiqui of Oxfam, Yoshiko Hill and Brook Sinclair of Oxfam Action Corps San Francisco, and Oxfam ally Rich Weiss. (photo: Gawain Kripke)

This year's Action Corps training launched a renewed annual cycle for taking action. Said New York member Jill Mizell,“there are many programs, like leadership fellows, where you spend a year reading about leadership. But with Oxfam Action Corps you actually do it.”  Together, the Action Corps nationwide hold hundreds of outreach events each year, and communicate in their 15 cities to a growing audience of more than fifteen thousand people.


Pictured: Storming the Capitol with panache - Oxfam Action Corps New Mexico's Kalen Olson, Jasmine McBeath, and Kathy Chavez on Capitol Hill with Brian Rawson (photo: Mary Louise Resch)

- Written by Brian Rawson, Senior Advisor, Community Organizer, and Oxfam Action Corps 'head coach'