Sitting on the floor of the Oak Room with my meager bowl of rice, I could not help but wonder what everyone else on campus was doing. Rather, I could not help but wonder what they were eating and then criticizing for not being comparable to the high-quality food they have become accustomed to in their modest lifestyles.
Hungry for justice? The 80 people who attended the Hunger Banquet last Thursday surely were. This was an event hosted by the Students for Social Justice as the first of several aimed at spreading awareness about issues of hunger and homelessness throughout campus.
The Hunger Banquet idea was sparked by Oxfam, which is an international relief organization that strives to find long-lasting solutions to poverty and hunger.
The event began with a script that highlighted the disparities between the three general social classes: high, middle and low. Fifty percent of the world’s population is among the low class, living on the equivalent of $2. Fifteen percent, on the other hand, is among the high class, leaving a mere 35 percent as part of the middle class.
Based on these rates, students were placed in social classes. Most students were part of the low class and were forced to sit on the ground with a mere bowl of rice and small cup of water for dinner. The higher and middle classes, on the other hand, were allowed to sit at tables with varied dinner options.
Imagine eating a bowl of rice and water every single night. I, personally, don’t think that any one of us at Fairfield can truly understand what this must feel like. Coming from an immigrant neighborhood, where most people are forced to take jobs that pay significantly less than the minimum wage yet still feel as if they’ve risen from poverty, even I cannot fathom hunger.
Still, I am at least willing to acknowledge the situation and am attempting to do the little that I can to solve it. But where is everyone else?
Since the majority of Fairfield students can be described as modest and humble individuals, perhaps many students assumed they were already aware of the situation and thought the event unnecessary. Perhaps they’ve already figured out the solution and were actually out fighting hunger.
Of course, this is an ambitious assumption, as the reality is that most students think they have better things to do than attend an event, pay $5 and get no food.
What is college without free food, anyway? I guess it is not enough that the University stresses Jesuit ideals and at least attempts to recruit socially conscious and proactive individuals.
Editor’s note: Samantha Bousri is a member of Students for Social Justice.
Learn more about hunger banquets at the Oxfam Web site.
Leave a Reply