We Stood Up, and They Responded!

We did it! Last Saturday the SF Bay Area Oxfam Action Corps held a Hunger Banquet to Stand Up Against Poverty, contributing to the 1,328 events that took place worldwide at the time of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Review Summit in New York City (Sept. 17-19). This global action called for a comprehensive development strategy to alleviate poverty and achieve the MDGs by 2015, and the call was heard!

Click here for more info about the 8 goals.

On Wednesday afternoon, US President Obama delivered a speech announcing a sweeping new effort called the US Global Development Policy. This historic initiative elevates development and poverty reduction as a US priority, expands the notion beyond just aid to areas such as trade and investment, demands increased coherency and coordination among US agencies, and calls for a new results-oriented approach that follows locally-set agendas in partnership with recipient countries.

Better yet, the White House announced that every four years US development policies will be updated in the US Global Development Strategy. This is truly a monumental shift in US development policy.

Read Oxfam America's response to this breakthrough here.

As always, a lot rides on the details of the program and its successful implementation. President Obama can implement reforms among his Administration and provide needed leadership. But permanent reform will require acts of Congress. So stay tuned - we'll soon be circulating an e-action urging supporters to help us ensure this reform sticks.

A huge THANK YOU to all who attended Saturday's Hunger Banquet and helped make this happen. And an extra special thanks to Luna Park SF and Regalito Rosticeria for their generous food donations.

Little-known facts about our global community
Forty percent of the people on our planet—more than 2.5 billion—now live in poverty, struggling to survive on less than $2 a day. Oxfam is working to change that. Hunger is the most visible face of poverty. In every nation on earth, people go to sleep hungry—more than 854 million people worldwide—even though our planet produces enough food to feed every woman, man, and child.

How does the Oxfam Hunger Banquet work?
Few experiences bring to life the inequalities in our world more powerfully than an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet event. Organizers and participants alike can experience firsthand how our decisions affect others in the world.

Guests draw tickets at random that assign them each to either a high, middle, or low-income tier and receive a corresponding meal. The 15% in the high-income tier are served a sumptuous meal. The 35% in the middle-income section eat a simple meal of rice and beans. The 50% in the low-income tier help themselves to small portions of rice and water.

Guests can also assume characterizations that describe the situation of a specific person at the income level to which they’ve been assigned. Finally, all guests are invited to share their thoughts after the meal.

After an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet event, few participants leave with full stomachs, but all possess a greater understanding of the problems of hunger and poverty and will hopefully be motivated to do something about them.

Join us for a Hunger Banquet on Saturday, September 18th, at The Women's Building in San Francisco's Mission District, from 3-5pm. RSVP at oxfam.sf@gmail.com.