Host a Hunger Banquet

by Leigh Graham · 2009-11-27 13:44:00 UTC
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Looking on-line at how food pantries and hungry families coped this Thanksgiving, I discovered the hunger banquet, a simulation designed to teach us about global food inequality.

At one held at Penn State earlier this month, attendees are given a popsicle stick with a mark on it designating where they will sit at the banquet. Attendees are sorted into the "upper-class" (15%), the "middle-class" (35%) and the "lower-class" (50%). Those landing at the upper class table ate on linens and china, enjoying a salad course and lasagna dinner. Middle-class attendees ate beans and rice at a table, using paper plates with plastic utensils. Lower-class designees crowded together inside a square outlined on the floor, sharing rice and beans in cups without utensils or plates.

Workers from Oxfam International and local food banks were on hand to lead the students through a reflection on their experience (lower-class diners ended up asking the upper-class table for some leftovers) as well as to share information on hunger worldwide and locally.

I've never heard of this exercise before, but a hunger banquet seems like a terrific way to educate people on the inequality in food access experienced here at home and worldwide. Do Something has more information on how you can host a hunger banquet in your area to raise awareness about and activism against hunger.

(Table featured above is definitely set for the upper-class crowd. Photo by Tracy Hunter)

Leigh Graham
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