(Note: first ever diary...please be gentle.)
As it happens, I am a student at a community college in Arizona that has a tendency to hold some pretty effective events outside of class. A couple weeks ago, my American Gov. professor told us about the upcoming "hunger banquet." A number of us in the class were skeptical of the title, asking if it was intentionally ironic; he replied, "probably".
Despite not knowing what really to expect, several of us decided to attend, including myself. As it turns out, it's worth writing about.
Join my after the flip, please, and I'll tell you about it.
So, the event was held on the 16th (this past Thursday). They'd be collecting canned goods outside, so I brought some along and dropped them. As we went in, everyone in attendance drew a piece of paper out of a basket, to determine their seating - as it happens, this was very important.
You see, the irony in the event was this: those in attendance were divided into three groups to simulate different income levels, and the disparities between them. The "low-income" group was by far the largest - sitting in the middle of the floor on folded cardboard boxes and palm leaves. The "middle income" group had folding chairs at the back; the "high income" group had tables at the front. As it happens, I was in the low income group.
Each card also had some information about a fictional, yet simultaneously real person - the exact person described might not exist, but there are many real people like them. My card read:
"My name is Miguel. I am a farmworker in Florida. I typically work 14 hours in the fields with only a half-hour break, for below minimum wage. I live in company-owned housing, paying for a place to live that does not even have a stove or a bed. I am organizing with other farmworkers to try to improve work conditions and increase my meager salary, but I fear losing my job since my employer does not want farmworkers to unionize."
As the event commenced, a number of poverty/hunger related facts were fired off. From my notes, here are a few:
- More than 842 million people are malnourished, 799 million from the developing world. More than 153 million of these are under 5 years old.
- 30,000 children die of hunger and preventable diseases every day.
- 1.3 billion, or 1/5th of the world's population, live on less than the equivilent of $1 a day.
- 30 million US citizens live below the poverty line.
- 12 million die each year from lack of clean water.
Next came the actual "banquet" part. This was, in my mind, highly hilarious (and in a sense, I saw it coming), but also made the whole issue seem personal. As it happens, we were fed according to the income group we were assigned to; the low income people got plain rice on a paper towel; the middle class got cuban black beans and rice, and the upper class got chicken and roasted potatoes, and salads. To drink, the lower income group had "community" jugs of water, while people in the middle income group had individual glasses and the high income group got sparkling cider. Amusingly, any "leftovers" from the high income group would be dumped into a large plastic bin for the low income group to pick from (in the same manner than in reality, people pick through other people's garbage for scraps out of necessity).
After the "banquet", we in the low-income group were asked to discuss among ourselves how we felt about the whole thing. There was a general consensus that the whole thing was unfair, but we understood why, and we all got the point. Then one out of the hundred or so was asked to address the rest of the room; as it happens, I volunteered and was chosen. I don't remember exactly what I said word for word, but I remember noting that the whole thing was sort of put in perspective for me, and that I understood better the obligation I had as someone who had the ability to do something. One of the high-income people was asked to comment as well, and I remember that person noting that as they were seated facing away from the low-income group, that it was if he couldn't see there was a problem, in a sense. Out of sight, out of mind.
In any case I think that wraps it up for what I wanted to share with you. The facts I mentioned probably aren't new to many in this community, but the way they were conveyed might be...this is the kind of event I'd like to see repeated across the country, to educate more people and make them understand what a grave subject this is, and maybe motivate some people to do something...anything.
UPDATE: for anyone interested in running an event like this, emptypockets found this script for us: Script