Hunger Banquet

Tuesday March 16

This week on campus we have been celebrating One Week. One of the activities was a Hunger Banquet. This activity was meant to make people be aware of world hunger and its reality. As Jarek Buss and I entered the room it was being held in we were each given a card with a different level of income. I luckily got a card that said middle level income and was directed to sit at a picnic table with no tablecloth. Jarek was not so lucky, he received a card that said low level income and was told to sit on the floor. The people who were lucky enough to receive a high level income card were to sit at spacious, round tables with nice tablecloths. The banquet began with an introduction to some countries that are living mostly in one of the three levels of income and then some 'news', both good and bad arrived. Some people were told to move down a income level while others were asked to move up income levels. Jarek was one of the lucky ones who got to move up from low income to the middle income. (Just as a side note - they split up the groups proportionately to the world's proportions as it comes to the three incomes. There were about 55% low, 40-45% middle, and about 15% high.) Then we ate. Low income people got one scoop of rice on a leaf, middle income people got spaghetti with sauce but they had to serve themselves on paper plates, and finally the high income people were served spaghetti, salad, cake, and juice on a glass plate. After we ate, two students of BYU-Hawaii talked about their personal experiences with hunger. The first was from a country in Africa and the second was from Haiti. They talked about how they both have to work to be able to send money back to their families, how when they were back in their home countries many people would beg for food, and when there wasn't any food all they got was one grain of salt that they would stick under their tongue. Not only was food scarce but also much of their countries water was not fit to drink. The two students brought up the point that it is good to donate food but it is even better to teach a nation how to sustain themselves with knowledge of how to take care of themselves. I am glad that I had the opportunity to go to this event. It was a real eye-opener to hear first hand accounts of students close to my age dealing with world hunger. It also showed me something more that I can donate instead of food. Knowledge is what these countries need. This Hunger Banquet made me extremely grateful for everything that I have, not only my food. I am lucky to be living the life I am living.

P.S. If you EVER get a chance to go to a Hunger Banquet... GO!!!!!! You won't regret it!