Oxfam works to create lasting solutions to poverty by listening to communities and providing support for projects they feel will improve their lives. This can include things like chickens, farming equipment, or wells. Recent commitments by world leaders on climate change are an important step towards addressing its effects. The US pledged $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund to help vulnerable countries deal with climate impacts like droughts and floods. While climate change affects everyone, its impacts fall most heavily on the world's poorest people. Support for initiatives that help poor communities adapt to climate change could significantly improve lives.

1. Creating lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and social injustice.
November 2014
Pair of chickens: $18
meal program for one child
$35
Irrigate a farm for four months
$40
Dig a well $175
WANTED:
Meaningful gifts this
holiday season
Your symbolic gift is actually a
donation that will be used where it
is needed the most—to help people
living in poverty around the world.
Oxfam creates lasting solutions
by working with communities and
listening to people when they tell
us what they need to change their
own lives, whether it’s a dozen baby
chicks or a chance to start a small
business.
New commitments
from US and world
leaders could be a step
toward global solu-
tions.
What happened?
Two big announcements last
week showed progress from US
and world governments on ad-
dressing climate change. First, on
November 11, the US and China
agreed to a groundbreaking plan
to address harmful greenhouse
gas emissions from both coun-
tries. According to The New York Times, “The
landmark agreement … includes new targets
for carbon emissions reductions by the Unit-
ed States and a first-ever commitment by
China to stop its emissions from growing by
2030.”
Then, on November 14, President Obama
announced that the US would contribute $3
billion to the Green Climate Fund—an interna-
tional fund created to help the world’s poor-
est countries deal
with the effects of
climate change,
which include
droughts, floods,
storms, and other
extreme weather.
Why is it important?
Just a few weeks after hundreds of thousands
of people marched in the streets of New York
City to demand climate action, President
Obama has taken unprecedented steps to
address the issue, showing that he plans to
make tackling climate change part of legacy.
Heather Coleman, Oxfam senior policy ad-
visor on climate change, explained in a re-
cent blog post why these commitments
have global significance. “The Green Cli-
mate Fund pledge … is a bigger deal than it
seems,” wrote Coleman. “The fund is key to
unlocking political gridlock toward reaching
a robust climate deal. [It] will put pressure on
other large emitters, like Japan [and] the UK
… to step up.”
How will this potentially change
people’s lives?
The new agreement with China might be
“Obama’s greatest contribution to the fight
against global poverty,” wrote Zack Beau-
champ in Vox. “Climate change is bad for
everyone. But it’s particularly bad for the
world’s poorest people.” The carbon foot-
print of the world’s one billion poorest peo-
ple represents just 3 percent of the global
total. Yet as climate
change advances,
poor communities
are hardest hit.
Oxfam has been
working with vulner-
able communities
around the globe to help people adapt to a
shifting climate and become more resilient in
the face of disasters. But as the effects of cli-
mate change become more severe, commu-
nities will need more resources if they’re go-
ing to fight back, which is why initiatives like
the Green Climate Fund are so significant.
“We have already seen billions of dollars
in damages, and thousands of lives lost to
increasingly extreme and unpredictable
weather from New Jersey to the Philippines,”
said Coleman. “A $3 billion dollar US pledge
to the Green Climate Fund would be an im-
portant show of American leadership to help
the most vulnerable people in the world pro-
tect themselves.”g
“Climate change is bad for ev-
eryone. But it’s particularly bad
for the world’s poorest people.”
Finally - some good news on climate change

2. It seems that lately Mark Bittman and I have been saying the same
thing to whoever will listen. Granted, Bittman is one of America’s
leading food writers and thinkers, so his circle is a bit broader than
mine. But our message is the same: To feed the world’s growing
population, we need to change the way we think about hunger.
In Bittman’s recent piece in The New York Times, “Don’t Ask How
to Feed the 9 Billion”, he debunks a very common misconcep-
tion—that hunger is caused by a scarcity of food. He writes:
The difference between you
and the hungry is not produc-
tion levels; it’s money. There are
no hungry people with money;
there isn’t a shortage of food,
nor is there a distribution prob-
lem. There is an I-don’t-have-the-
land-and-resources-to-produce-my-own-food, nor-can-I-afford-
to-buy-food problem. …
So we should not be asking, “How will we feed the world?” but
“How can we help end poverty?” Claiming that increasing yield
would feed the poor is like saying that producing more cars or
private jets would guarantee that everyone had one.
When I read that, I thought of some other words from the script
for the Oxfam America Hunger Banquet®, words which I’ve heard
so many times I can almost recite them by heart:
You may think hunger is about too many people and too little
food. That is not the case. Our rich and bountiful planet produc-
es enough food to feed every woman, man, and child on earth.
Hunger is about power. Its roots lie in inequalities in access to
resources.
If you’ve attended an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet, you prob-
ably still remember it. At this interactive event, the place where
you sit, and the meal that you eat, are determined by the luck
of the draw—just as in real life some of us are born into relative
prosperity and others into poverty. Depending on which ticket
you draw when you walk in the door, you could enjoy a sumptu-
ous meal at a well-set table… or nibble on a handful of rice while
sitting on the floor.
My job is to help people understand the root causes of hunger
and poverty, and the Oxfam America Hunger Banquet is one of
the most powerful tools we have in this effort. It’s a way to not
only illustrate, but to experience, the reality that Bittman talks
about in his column. It makes you realize that hunger—in the US
and around the world—is a result of deep-rooted inequalities, and
that some of us never have a chance to be on a level playing field.
While I may have lost count of how many Oxfam America Hunger
Banquets I’ve attended over the
years, I am always struck by their
capacity to shift the way people
think. These events never fail to
challenge the myths about hun-
ger that we’ve all built up in our
minds.
This week, just days before our lovely Thanksgiving holiday, vol-
unteers will organize Oxfam America Hunger Banquets across
the country, on campuses, at faith congregations, in offices, and
schools. When I see people giving their time and energy to host
events of their own, I think of it as evidence of how deeply Amer-
icans care about the inequality of hunger. And I believe that each
event is a step toward possible solutions. I’ll be joining them—and
I hope you will, too. g
“Claiming that increasing yield would feed
the poor is like saying that producing more
cars or private jets would guarantee that
everyone had one.”
From famous food writers to volunteers, we’re all on the same page:
It’s time to change how we think about food and inequality.
This Thanksgiving, change the way
your community thinks about hunger
and poverty:
Host an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet.
To learn more or to find a Banquet in your
area, visit:
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/take-action/
events/hunger-banquet/
November 2014