How the world eats: 'Hunger Banquet' at UMSL

"Eight hundred forty million people suffer from chronic hunger," Laura Kent, junior, chemistry, read at the start of the Hunger Banquet Thursday afternoon. "…And the most basic human right is the right to eat - the right to not go hungry."

A group of about 15 UM-St. Louis students and faculty came together for an exercise in social inequality called a "hunger banquet," hosted by the Catholic Newman Center. The goal of the social experiment was to have participants walk away with an eye opening experience about the way the world eats.

"The Hunger Banquet is a metaphor for how food and other resources are distributed throughout the world," Kent said.

Kent, along with Holly Scheibel, junior, chemistry, were the masters of ceremonies of the Hunger Banquet and began the event by using a slideshow to illustrate to their audience a few statistics and information about world hunger.

After giving an example of the average expenses an American family faces and illustrating that many Americans cannot feed their families because of these expenses, Kent and Scheibel asked the audience to open the white envelopes they received upon entering the room.

The envelope contained a small colored index card with a name, class level, and description of a person. Kent and Scheibel asked the group to find their rightful place in the room according to the card.

Some people sat on the floor. These individuals represented the lowest income level and were amongst old and crinkled up newspaper and bins. The middle class sat at a plain gray table with nothing adorning it. And two others making up the high class sat down at a table with a white tablecloth, flowers, tea, ice water, dinner salads and rolls.

"Those of you at the high income table," Scheibel said, "represent 15 percent of the population. You, however, consume 70 percent of all the grain in the world and 65 percent of you are overweight."

"Those in the middle income," she continued, "represent 25 percent of the population and might work in a sweatshop in a third world country, or maybe you live in overcrowded housing in the U.S. Either way, it is a daily struggle for you to make ends meet."

"Those of you on the floor," Kent said, "are in the smallest income class. You are 60 percent of the population, and make about $900 a year or $2.50 a day. You come from mainly Cambodia or Ethiopia."

Some participants were asked to stand and read their cards. Others (from the middle and low income classes) were asked to switch places because of a fictional lucky break or loss on the part of the character they were role playing.

After that, the participants were left to on their own fates. While a tuxedo wearing waiter asked those at the high-income table whether they preferred chicken parmesan or prime rib as a main course, those sitting at the middle income table were invited to a buffet of rice, beans and lemonade.

The low class participants on the floor helped themselves to plain white rice served on a small triangular piece of cardboard with brownish water to wash it down.

However, soon enough, the members of the high-income class invited three persons from the floor and two from the middle income group to join the table and their meal.

Those left behind were not forgotten as the high income table decided to share their food with them throughout the hunger banquet. Some were less grateful than others however and refused to accept the charity at times.

"I was very happy that the high income people shared their food," said Tracy Van de Riet, campus minister at the Catholic Newman Center. "I think the middle class was a little overlooked though."

Kent agreed with Van de Riet and said, "Actually I didn't realize before today that the middle class gets overlooked. Either way, it was really great to see that the wealthy people shared."

Michael Rankins, assistant director of Student Life, was seated at the high-income table from the start.

"I was surprised that we had all the empty seats at our table and figured they shouldn't go to waste," Rankins said of his decision to invite others to eat with him.

Julie Kreis, sophomore, economics, was seated on the floor throughout the entire exercise with the lowest-income group, yet she had no hard feelings about not being invited to the high-income table.

"This is the first time I've been to a Hunger Banquet and I didn't quite know what to expect," she said. "I didn't realize it would be so interactive, and I really enjoyed myself [despite sitting on the floor]."

After the Hunger Banquet ended, some participants shared their feelings about the experiment.

"This was a very powerful exercise in social equality and social justice," Rankins said.