Oxfam Action Corps Tackles the Farm Bill
9 May 2007
New volunteer program begins grassroots organizing in 10 US cities.
After more than three months of preparation, Oxfam America staff finally met and trained their new, elite group of volunteers.
The Oxfam Action Corps is an initiative to cultivate 20 volunteers from 10 key cities to provide Oxfam America with additional campaigning clout and grassroots outreach. From now through the fall, these volunteers will focus on reforming the Farm Bill, a law that will govern our farm, food, and conservation policy over the next five years. The broader goal is to create a strong base of activists for Oxfam’s campaigning work in the future.
The Action Corps members hail from all over the country—from Burlington, Vermont to Charlottesville, Virginia, to Chicago, Illinois, and San Francisco, California. They range in age from 19 to 55. The group includes a minister, farmer, professor, mechanical engineer, and professional lobbyist. Different in so many ways, they’re united by their common backgrounds and interests -- activist experience, a personal commitment to ending poverty, a connection to agriculture in the US or abroad, and a willingness to commit significant time this year to supporting Oxfam and the campaign to reform the Farm Bill.
Matthew Palombo, 30, an instructor at Minneapolis Community and Technical College received an online invitation from Oxfam to join the Oxfam Action Corps. He said he was eager to get involved because he wanted to continue the activism he talks about in class.
“I have a lot of diverse students, from East, West, and Central Africa and Southeast Asia. Teaching courses like ethics and religion, my students express how policies formed around the world hurt their communities’ ability to make a decent living,” Palombo said. “It’s not so much a lack of aid. It’s more a lack of the ability to sell their goods on the world market for fair prices and be able to pull themselves out of poverty.”
Summer camp for activists
The group of 20 Action Corps members came together at Oxfam’s Washington, DC office in April. There, over two days of intense training, Oxfam staff educated the volunteers about the Farm Bill and basic grassroots organizing tactics. On their final day, the volunteers were put to the test, pairing off to meet with their own US representatives and senators on Capitol Hill. The corps met with 36 offices that day, each testing their knowledge of the Farm Bill and proposed reforms that include reducing commodity subsidies, and shifting that money to programs like conservation, nutrition, rural development, and the research and development of renewable sources of energy.
Anna Kern, 28, an Action Corps volunteer who farms in Kansas City, Kansas, said the training, though relatively short, created significant bonds.
“By the end there was such a sense of ‘We’re a team and we’re in this together.’ The last day was like the end of summer camp. You’re going to miss all your friends. You want to be pen pals,” she said. “I didn’t expect that.”
Since April, the Action Corps volunteers have tabled at universities, set up MySpace and Facebook campaigning pages, volunteered at concerts and festivals, met with legislative staff and faith communities, and organized house parties to generate letters to Congress. Armed with Oxfam publications and guided by our own organizers, they’re busy putting their new skills and relationships to good use.
Brian Rawson, the senior organizer at Oxfam who established the Action Corps, said the group of 20 demonstrate the best qualities of social justice in action.
“This kind of energy exists just beneath the surface in communities around the United States. People are looking for a way to make a difference, and will join a well-run effort that proposes smart, practical solutions to poverty at home and abroad,” he said. “Anyone can take part in house parties, letter-writing campaigns, and visits to legislators. These are the types of grassroots efforts that change bad policies.”
