A $2 donation or five cans of food was all it took for most students at this year’s Oxfam Hunger Banquet Thursday night Nov. 20 to get a small bowl of rice and a cup of brown water for dinner.
According to the accompanying presentation, this is just how the world’s people eat: 55 percent are considered low-income and live on just dollars a day; 30 percent are middle-income, struggling to get and give their children nutritious meals on under $9,200 per year; and only 15 percent are high-income, but this small group consumes over 70 percent of the world’s grain.
This inequality was effectively captured in Thursday’s event.
Upon entering the Culp Center Ballroom, students drew slips of paper for their respective class designation for the night. Over half drew low-income, and were seated on the floor amongst torn newspaper, crumpled cardboard and assorted trash.
Those lucky enough to draw middle-income enjoyed chairs at cafeteria-style tables, and the select few high-income individuals sat at a white-clothed banquet table, with salads, tea and cheesecake already awaiting them.
The message only got clearer when it was time to eat. The long line of low-income students waiting for their rice and dirty-looking water looked on as the middle-income group enjoyed beans, tea and clean water in addition to their rice. The high-income table was served a three-course meal.
Undoubtedly, there was, in reality, enough good food in the Aramark kitchen to serve every student the high-income meal. Imaginary class and power were the only determining factors in the banquet’s food distribution.
Amazingly, this is the same scenario that plays across the world every day. As Peter Vu, Volunteer ETSU member and chair of the Hunger Banquet explained, the root of hunger lies in unequal access to resources and education, not in any worldwide food shortages.
Vu went on to explain that the banquet was a metaphor for how all world resources are unequally distributed; it is not a question of quantity, it is a question of selective distribution.
Also emphasized was that no single country was wholly represented by any of the three income groups. Even the United States, one of the richest countries in the world, fails to effectively feed 31 million of its own citizens every day.
A panel of speakers at the banquet, made up of two professors, two ETSU students and two representatives from local aid groups, further explored these ideas as the dinner portion of the event concluded. Attendees were exposed to the big picture of hunger, from the 16 percent of Northeast Tennesseans struggling below the poverty line to the unemployment and gross malnutrition that afflicts millions in countries across the globe.
The facts are saddening, but the overwhelming sentiment was that students can make a difference in this fight. Good Samaritan Ministries and the Second Harvest Food Bank, both of whom were represented on the panel, fully welcome volunteers of time as well as money and goods.
Similarly, other organizations such as the Salvation Army and a number of local soup kitchens are always open to the help of willing volunteers.
At the conclusion of the banquet, students and organizers were positive about the effectiveness of the event. “It helped me to gain insight on how many people are homeless and hungry in the world,” said Leslie Smith, who drew low-income for the night.
Brandeanna Allen, vice president of VETSU, was especially pleased by the diversity of this year’s turnout. “[There were] people from different backgrounds both in the panel and in the audience,” she said. “It makes a bigger impact to have people from different walks of life.”
The best measure of success, though, will be the impact after the event. “It only takes a little time to make a difference,” Vu said. “I just encourage people to get involved.”
For more information about Oxfam, check out www.oxfamamerica.org.
To find out more about volunteering through ETSU, call the VETSU office at 439-4254.

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