At the Hunger Banquet

Oct 15th, 2008 11:36 AM EST
By Field

On Saturday, October 11, ONE and Bread for the World co-sponsored a “Hunger Banquet” at Media City Church in Burbank, CA. Participants drew pieces of paper indicating their symbolic income level for the event - and then were given their meals accordingly. The 60% who drew slips of paper with “low-income” written on them received rice, the 30% who pulled “middle-income” received rice and beans, and the remaining few- 10%- who pulled “high-income” straws received lasagna, salad, bread and dessert.

During the meal, one member of our high-income group showed his compassion my handing out bread from his table to some of the people in the low-income group while claiming he was “Robin Hood”. I couldn’t help thinking that I wish it were just that simple. David Gist from Bread For the World gave an awesome speech about his personal experiences and encouraged us all to commit to making a difference.

Congressman Adam Schiff closed out the Banquet by speaking about his work on issues of poverty and preventable disease. During the Q&A portion, Congressman Schiff was asked if America was doing a sufficient job in fighting extreme poverty to which he responded “no, in fact we are falling far short… especially in terms of universal education.” He also confirmed the importance of contacting our leaders on issues that we care about. One of the most interesting things he pointed out about letter writing was that while the form letters that we all add our signatures to are great, personal letters and face to face meetings seem to make more of an impact. I was really impressed with Congressman Schiff’s knowledge and dedication to eradicating global poverty.

This Hunger Banquet was enlightening and motivational. It is my hope that we will continue to spread awareness about poverty issues and encourage people to take action. We all can be a little like our “Robin Hood” by using our voices and our votes!

A big thanks to Congressman Adam Schiff and his office for their wonderful work and advocacy; Media City Church and Pastor Rick for hosting our event, the dedication and support of Pastor Ivan Ortiz; to David, Holly and Joanna from Bread for the World, Amy Quinn and Sherri my super ONE buddies, Penny, Jill, Aimee, Alicia and Angela for representing Compassion International and Kara from RESULTS for tabling/providing opportunities for people to get involved.

-Robin Hatcher, Volunteer Team Leader, The ONE Campaign Los Angeles

TAGS: Bread for the World, ONE, ONE Members