Today and in coming days, Congress is debating cuts to life-saving foreign aid. Our local Action Corps and Oxfam volunteer leaders are delivering petitions to Senate offices across the country along with an unusual twist: sweet potatoes. Why sweet potatoes? Because this Thanksgiving staple is also a feature of aid programs that boost nutrition in Africa.
A special orange-fleshed variety (conventionally bred) is rich in vitamin-A and drought resistant. Promoting it in place of less-nutritious varieties in communities in Africa has helped boost immune systems, prevent blindness, and improve livelihoods for growers.
But this noble root is just one out of hundreds of such simple, cost-effective projects that are saving lives and livelihoods around the world - and funded by US foreign aid programs like Feed the Future!
We delivered sweet potatoes along with 3,877 signatures and several handwritten letters from constituents to Senator Feinstein's and Senator Boxer's local offices. The petition was signed by more than 20,000 people nationwide.
