What It’s All About

Living Local

Getting ready for the Farmer's Market!

It’s an exciting time for the Madison Action Corps. Kat and I have been making a big effort to create an Oxfam presence at the Farmer’s Market, and it’s working! The first day we were out there, I ended up talking with an older couple for over an hour about global hunger, and the different approaches that are taken to address it—direct assistance or addressing root causes of hunger and lack of access. It was a great discussion, and made me remember why I’m so committed to Oxfam. Then, this past Saturday, I saw the woman I had been talking with the week before and we greeted each other like friends. That’s what it’s all about—building relationships based on a common commitment to ending global hunger. That’s why this night owl will get up at 7am on a Saturday morning to haul a table, petitions, buttons, stickers, literature, and an unruly barracuda to Capitol Square. I was also really excited this week because we had some new literature, including recipes that sound absolutely delicious! My roommates had better be prepared, because they are going to become taste-testers in my quest to try out Oxfam’s recipes!

Preparing corn for distribution at Second Harvest

 After the Farmer’s Market this past Saturday we also went out to Second Harvest Food Bank as a group for the first time. Second Harvest accepts food donations from individuals, companies, and other organizations, then repackages it and sends it off to local food pantries for distribution. The seven of us committed 3 hours of our afternoon to sort through food at varying stages of freshness to ensure that the folks receiving food would be getting high quality produce. It was an eye-opening experience into the world of perishable food distribution, and a fun time. Hunger isn’t a problem exogenous to the United States; it’s unfortunately all too common right here in our neighborhoods. 1 in 7 people is affected by hunger around the world, and that includes the Madison community. Last year, Second Harvest distributed 8.6 million pounds of food in 16 counties in Southern Wisconsin. That’s 4,300 tons of food. That’s like a thousand elephants. That boggles my mind.

Update on the Sahel

Moving from the local to the global (it’s funny how often I find myself doing that), I was disturbed to hear about the recent burning of sacred tombs in Timbuktu, Mali this past week. If you’ve been following the Sahel crisis, you probably know that one of the factors exacerbating the drought is the conflict in Northern Mali, which is displacing thousands of people and creating greater food insecurity and hunger. Unfortunately, the conflict hasn’t been getting much attention, and it doesn’t appear to be lessening in intensity. As the conflict ramps up, the food situation will only become more dire for those fleeing the violence, and food insecurity could increase in neighboring countries also affected by the drought as the number of people needing access to scarce food resources grows. The only bright spot in this ever growing crisis is that aid agencies, including Oxfam, realized early on that a crisis was brewing, and they’re already on the ground trying to avert disaster. But, they need proper financial support from countries and international organizations in order to effectively address the crisis.

See You Soon!

There’s so much going on in the world of Oxfam and Madison that I feel like my thoughts are just jumping from place to place with no coherence. Hopefully you were able to follow my random flow of thoughts!  Have a very happy Fourth of July, and I’ll see you on July 10^th at 7pm for our July meeting!