'Banquet' opens eyes to global hunger

As a part of the annual Hunger Awareness Week, UM-St. Louis, with the help of Oxfam, held a hunger banquet. The event revealed the unfair distribution of food around the globe. The banquet began at noon on Nov. 20, in Century Room A and B of the Millennium Student Center. Mo Dunn, treasurer of the Catholic Newman Center, was the key speaker. Dunn opened the event by saying that the purpose of the hunger banquet was to educate students about world hunger as well as what can be done to help those who are affected by the problem. "We are here today because 1.2 billion people, about one-fifth of the population, live in poverty," Dunn said. "Eight hundred and forty million of these people suffer from chronic hunger...every 2.9 seconds, a child dies from hunger and other preventable causes. That's 30,000 children a day." Despite the large number of starving people around the globe, hunger is not due to lack of food, according to Dunn. "You may think hunger is about too many people and too little food. Not true...it is about power. The roots of hunger lie in inequalities in access to education and resources." Baskets with color-coded stickers were passed out to each of the 40 people who attended. Every sticker was one of three colors that represented a class in society. The white sticker represented the high-income class, or 15 percent of the world's population, orange stickers represented the middle-income class, or 30 percent of the world's population, and the green sticker represented the low-income class, or 55 percent of the world's population. Dunn went on to explain the three different income classes. The high-income group has a per capita income of $9,266 or more. They consume 70 percent of all the grain grown in the world, have access to the best health care, their children are destined to go to school, and they have access to credit. The middle-income group earns between $756 and $9,265 a year. They live on the edge where, if there is a drought or serious illness, they risk being thrown into poverty. The low-income group earns less than $755 a year, which amounts to about two dollars a day. Most of these people come from poor countries, such as Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Haiti or Cambodia. Each class was separated and given different treatment. The high-income class group was seated and served at a table set with candles, silverwear and wine glasses. They were given a nutritious meal that included a salad, mixed vegetables, potatoes, chicken, beef or salmon, and dessert. The middle-income class served themselves beans and rice at a buffet table. The low-income group were told to sit on the floor and were given plain rice on cardboard plates with no utensils. They were also given watered down iced tea, which simulated dirty water. Those who filled their plastic cups with too much "water" were told they were "being greedy" and received a half portion of rice. Biography cards were scattered out in each of the three groups' areas, and participants were encouraged to read them while eating. A participant with a green sticker, a low-income group, read examples of real people who currently live in poverty. One card in the lower-income group gave an example of a Vietnamese woman who struggles to feed and educate her children because she makes less than two hundred dollars a year and needs her children to help out at home instead of going to school. Participants were also asked to view a slide show of various people who were helped by Oxfam. Following the slide show, Dunn asked everyone to join her in a moment of silence to reflect on their experience. She asked participants to share their experience on how they felt being in their income level. Sara Littrell, who ate in the low-income group, said that she attended the banquet because she wanted to be more educated on this issue. "This is not something that I expected when first told about it. Eating on the floor, I didn't realize that the portions of food were so small. I didn't eat anything for lunch; there is no way that this amount of food could be filling to anyone." "This Hunger Banquet is a metaphor for how food and other resources are unequally distributed in the world," said Dunn. "The one thing that I would like you to remember is this: Everyone on earth has the same basic needs. It is only our circumstances, where we live and the culture we are born into, that differ. Each person's place is randomly determined." Dunn concluded the banquet by reminding participants that "there are a few who get a lot, and that most get very little." But, she said, there are ways to battle against global hunger and poverty. Some of the ways include holding a hunger banquet, helping fundraising for agencies who help in improving poor people's lives, buying from socially responsible companies who use the Fair Trade label on their products and joining Oxfam's e-community to receive invitations to take action on critical global issues. This can be done at www.oxfaminternational.org. Oxfam is a confederation of 12 organizations that educate people about world hunger in more than a hundred countries. The hunger banquet is just one part of the organization's 30 years of raising awareness and pouring millions of dollars into supporting anti-poverty. Oxfam supports 50 projects in 30 countries. One of the organization's missions includes educating the American public about hunger and poverty through events such as the Hunger Banquet. The Oxfam Banquet was co-sponsored by several organizations on campus, including Interfaith Campus Ministries, the Catholic Newman Center, the Office of Student Life, University Program Board, Student Government Association, Pierre Laclede Honors College Student Association, Amnesty International, Pre-Med Society, Alpha Phi Omega, Golden Key International Honour Society, Student Social Work Association and College Republicans.

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