On Friday, May 31st, Oxfam Action Corps volunteers and a group from the UN Association of Greater Philadelphia visited the offices of Senator Casey and Senator Toomey. We were delivering petitions with over 2,000 signatures of Pennsylvanians in support of international food aid reform. If you haven't signed the petition,
please add your name! It will be printed and delivered the next time we go.
 |
| Cheryl Bullock, Senior Advisor & Regional Director (2nd from right) with our delegation |
|
|
Our group included Sydney Berry (a brand new Oxfam Action Corps volunteer!) and Arushi Kohli, Maeve Flynn, and Vesko Kostic from the UN Association of Greater Philadelphia. We were very fortunate at our visit to Senator Casey's office to have the chance to sit down with Cheryl Bullock, Regional Director & Senior Advisor. We spoke with her about the details of the President's proposed changes to the international food aid budget and why they are important. One specific change frees up food aid funds so that food can be purchased locally (near the area in crisis), rather than purchasing within the United States and shipping overseas. This saves the price of shipping and up to 11 weeks of travel time, which can be crucial in a emergency.
Most importantly, it means we can feed millions more people with the same amount of money.
So a huge thank-you to Cheryl for taking the time to sit down with us, and another huge thank-you to the crew from the UN Association of Greater Philadelphia. You all did a fantastic job, and we're excited to team up with you in the future!
