Oxfam America

Oxfam America hopes to raise at least $1 million from schoolchildren, workers and other people taking part in the 12th annual Fast for a World Harvest to ease the problem of world hunger. "We ask people to either fast for the day or to skip one meal today and donate what they would have spent to Oxfam America," spokesman Scott Slater said in Boston.

Starbucks, the icon of U.S. coffee culture, strongly defended Sunday its business practices with poor coffee farmers around the world after it was accused of blocking the U.S. trademark application of coffee growers from Ethiopia. Starbucks said in a full-page ad published Sunday in the New York Times that it had worked to strengthen coffee farms in many parts of the world.

The idea was to dramatize world hunger--to drive home just how inequitably food is distributed in the world--and most of the celebrities who attended the Second Annual Hollywood Hunger Banquet on Thursday wound up sitting on the floor and eating a meager portion of rice with their fingers.

Hollywood benefit dinners often feature lobster ravioli, goat cheese, empanadas and other improbably exotic foodstuffs. Rarely, though, do guests get nothing but rice and water. That, however, was the menu for some diners at the fourth annual Oxfam America Hunger Banquet, Thursday night at the Virgin Megastore Complex on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. The evening was designed to raise money and spotlight the Boston-based group's 20-year-old crusade against world hunger.

Behn praises Renamo's "miles of flourishing corn, manioc, beans and rice farms." She fails to explain that the Mozambican government forces, in their campaign to wipe out the Renamo bandits, do not destroy crops. Such rampant destruction and pillage is the policy of Renamo, the "contras" of Mozambique. Behn should have visited some of the empty fields, where peasant food crops are systematically destroyed by Renamo. She could have taken a broader look, spent time with my Oxfam America colleagues in neighboring Zimbabwe, visiting some of the 30,000 Mozambican displaced persons still in refugee camps.

Hollywood benefit dinners often feature lobster ravioli, goat cheese, empanadas and other improbably exotic foodstuffs. Rarely, though, do guests get nothing but rice and water. That, however, was the menu for some diners at the fourth annual Oxfam America Hunger Banquet, Thursday night at the Virgin Megastore Complex on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. The evening was designed to raise money and spotlight the Boston-based group's 20-year-old crusade against world hunger.

Starbucks, the icon of U.S. coffee culture, strongly defended Sunday its business practices with poor coffee farmers around the world after it was accused of blocking the U.S. trademark application of coffee growers from Ethiopia. Starbucks said in a full-page ad published Sunday in the New York Times that it had worked to strengthen coffee farms in many parts of the world.

WASHINGTON - Facing a growing humanitarian crisis, Oxfam, the international relief agency, set a goal in January of raising $53 million to aid victims of Syria's brutal civil war. So far, Americans have contributed $150,000. Oxfam isn't alone. Mercy Corps has collected $900,000 for Syrian refugees during the 27 months of the war, a fraction of the $2.5 million raised in a few weeks in 2006 during the one-month war between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. Other aid groups report similar low levels of response - a sharp contrast to Americans' usual warmhearted giving to help victims of foreign earthquakes, floods and wars.

Stars to Go Hungry: Actors Danny Glover and Edward James Olmos will serve as honorary co-chairs of the First Oxfam America Hollywood Hunger Banquet, part of the organization's annual Fast for a World Harvest today. Other celebrities scheduled to attend the event include Ruben Blades, Mike Farrell and Raul Julia.

A partial list of those accepting cash donations to help victims of the Gulf War. For more information on any of these groups, contact InterAction, 202-822-8429. * Grass Roots International: Box 312, Cambridge, Mass. 02139. * Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles: 6505 Wilshire Bl., L.A. 90048. * Lutheran World Relief: 390 Park Ave. South, New York, N.Y. 10016. Mercy Corps International, 3030 S.W. First Ave., Portland, Or. 97201.

The idea was to dramatize world hunger--to drive home just how inequitably food is distributed in the world--and most of the celebrities who attended the Second Annual Hollywood Hunger Banquet on Thursday wound up sitting on the floor and eating a meager portion of rice with their fingers.

Behn praises Renamo's "miles of flourishing corn, manioc, beans and rice farms." She fails to explain that the Mozambican government forces, in their campaign to wipe out the Renamo bandits, do not destroy crops. Such rampant destruction and pillage is the policy of Renamo, the "contras" of Mozambique. Behn should have visited some of the empty fields, where peasant food crops are systematically destroyed by Renamo. She could have taken a broader look, spent time with my Oxfam America colleagues in neighboring Zimbabwe, visiting some of the 30,000 Mozambican displaced persons still in refugee camps.

Oxfam America hopes to raise at least $1 million from schoolchildren, workers and other people taking part in the 12th annual Fast for a World Harvest to ease the problem of world hunger. "We ask people to either fast for the day or to skip one meal today and donate what they would have spent to Oxfam America," spokesman Scott Slater said in Boston.

The Reagan Administration has refused to let a private relief agency send farm tools to leftist-ruled Nicaragua. U.S. officials rejected an application from Oxfam America, a Boston-based relief agency, to ship $41,000 worth of farm equipment, Oxfam officials said. John Hammock, Oxfam's executive director, said in an interview that the shipment to two private Nicaraguan agencies had been intended to help alleviate hunger in the country, the target of a U.S. trade embargo for more than a year.

About 600 students, faculty and staff at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont participated in a "Fast for World Hunger" Thursday and donated the money from the meals they skipped to local and international hunger-relief organizations. Roughly $1,200 was raised by the fast, sponsored by the college's student volunteer program, Mudders Making a Difference, said Regina Mooney, the Mudders' faculty adviser. Mooney added that the program is in its fifth year; the first year, the students raised $138.