“I’m doing something about this global food crisis.”
Check out the post below from Sasha Milonova, a student at Chapman University in Orange, CA and Oxfam America CHANGE Leader about how to host a Hunger Banquet in honor of World Food Day (next Thurs, 10/16). Consider incorporating an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet in your “Stand Up and Take Action” event next week for an additional 2,500 points!
-Margaret McDonnell, ONE NGO Partner Relations Team
October 16th is World Food Day and to prepare my campus for it I’m hosting an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet on the global food crisis. Even though I live in the US and I am well fed, I have really been moved by all the stories I’ve heard over the past months, as I’ve listened and read about how the global food crisis is contributing to poverty around the world. I’ve heard how families are having to choose between school for their daughters, or food. How people are eating smaller meals and less often. I wanted to do something about it, I needed to find a way to convey the strong emotions I felt about this issue to students on my campus and people in my community. And then I attended an Oxfam America’s Hunger Banquet.The Oxfam America Hunger Banquet event is a way for participants to experience poverty in a very real way. As everyone enters the room they are given a card that at random assigns them to a lower, middle or upper income group. The percentages represent real life and what you see is startling- the majority of people, the low income group, sit on the floor. A meal is served that is appropriate to each income level, with rice and water for people in the lower incomes, and a three course meal for those in the upper income. I won’t get into all the details, but I’ll just say that I saw tears in people’s eyes who I never knew cared about these issues. It affected everyone who attended.
So, I’m now planning a Hunger Banquet at my own school. I got everything I needed from Oxfam’s website. If you ever have a chance to attend an Oxfam Hunger Banquet or can organize one yourself – you definitely should – it will change the way you see things.
Sasha Milonova
Chapman University
Orange, CA
October 10th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Another great way to show your support on World Food Day is to vote for International Medical Corp, which is in the running to receive $1.5 million in donations from American Express for their worldwide campaign to save malnourished children.
They’re so close, they just need more votes! Check it out here: http://internationalmedicalcorps.smnr.us/