What a
gift to be a part of the second (almost annual) Hunger Banquet at UPC
tonight. UPC hosted the first one in September 2013 and I helped coordinate another evening
tonight with a similar format.
Guests came to the event and were welcomed at a table where they drew tickets at random that assigned them each to either a high, middle, or low-income group. They then received a corresponding meal:
· 15% of the guests were in the high-income tier and they were served a meal of salad, pasta, and bread.
· 35 % in the middle income group were given a simple meal of rice and beans.
· 50% in the low-income tier helped themselves to small portions of rice.
I have
my super creative friend Kristi Gilbert to thank for bringing these costumes
for kids to play with and try on as they arrived. She has a treasure trove of costumes, instruments and
goodies that would make the Children’s Museum jealous. So glad
to have this girl on my team!
It is
hard to grasp numbers like this, but I offer these nonetheless:
•
More than 2.5 billion people live
in poverty.
•
Over 925 million people suffer from
chronic hunger.
•
A child dies from hunger or a
preventable disease every four seconds. That’s 22,000 children a day.
I knew
that it would spark some lively conversation as such a simulation is
intentionally awkward. Those who sat in the high income group talked
about how uncomfortable it was to be sitting at the tables knowing that others
were not eating the same meal and quantity of food.
Our
family randomly got a low income ticket and Taylor was very upset. He had been in the middle income group
last year and had his shackles raised about how this was NOT fair. And just like last year, he was wrapped
up in the moment of the injustice of the whole scenario. He really had tears in his eyes
and did not want to come up front to say his few lines that were a part of the
script for the evening so we had to punt those lines to Anna. While he asked me if he could switch or
if we could do something, I was trying to get final details for the evening in
place so I could not answer all of his concerns. While I knew I could get him some beans after the evening if need be, the fact is that people living in poverty don't have this kind of back-up. The
sobering thing for me was to see the exasperated look in his eyes and to
imagine what this would be like if this were our reality. When it was our turn for getting
food, the rice was getting low in the pot. We each got some, but it was not
enough to fill our bellies.
They brought more out, but the reality is that for many people, there
are not extras to be had.
We had several organizations represented here as ways that folks could respond to the evening's simulation.... (Nicholas Fund, Agros, Bread for the Hungry, Children of the Kingdom, & Seed Global Health)
(more
from what we shared last night below:)
Millions
of people don’t have access to the food they need. Global food prices hit
record highs in recent years, and remain volatile. For many, food that is
within reach one day may not be affordable the next. Hunger
affects everyone, in countries rich and poor. But some of us face greater
challenges than others. About 80
percent of the world’s hungry people live in rural areas, where most work as
farmers, fishers, herders, and laborers. Every day, looming constraints on
resources—like fertile land and water—make it more difficult for food
producers, especially women, to feed their families. Global shifts in weather
are adding to the problem, making it harder for farmers to sow and harvest
their crops.
You may
think hunger is about too many people and too little food. That is not the
case. Our rich
and bountiful planet produces enough food to feed every woman, man, and child
on earth. Hunger
is about power. Its roots lie in inequalities in access to resources. The
results are illiteracy, poverty, war, and the inability of families to grow or
buy food.This event acknowledges the plight of the world’s hungry and helps
create an awareness of the issues surrounding poverty.
"This
event is a metaphor for how food and other resources are inequitably
distributed in the world. As such, this event can only touch upon the issues.
We cannot recreate the many complex ways poverty manifests itself. We will not
have time to go into all the problems associated with lack of access to health
care, education, and employment opportunities, and the realities of the
day-to-day struggle for survival.
The one
thing we would like you to remember is this: Everyone on earth has the same
basic needs; it is only our circumstances—where we live and the culture into
which we are born—that differ. Some of us are born into relative prosperity and
security, while millions—through no choice of our own— are born into poverty.
As each
of us walked in the door here today, we drew our lot at random. Look around,
and you can see that equality and balance don’t exist here.
Please
note: No one section of this room represents a single country. While the US is
one of the wealthiest countries on earth, almost 44 million Americans live in
poverty. Nearly 20 percent of children in the US—or about one in every five
American children—live below the poverty line. Stark inequalities prevail
everywhere."
As we reflected on the evening with the group, one of the kids said, "We did not get to choose our ticket. It was not fair." He nailed it and totally got the message of the evening...
We ended the evening with
everyone together in giant circle to break down the dividing lines that we
had drawn with the groups at the beginning. We are not called to sit in guilt, but to respond with gratitude. In light of this, I asked everyone to sing the
song “God our Father” to the tune of Frere Jacques…. It was a beautiful way to
end the evening circled up and thanking God for His gifts.
I got this text tonight from a neighbor who came:
"Such a great evening....Has already spurred some great conversation and look forward to keeping it going!!"
Let's all keep thinking about the gifts we have been given and consider how we can be a part of the way that God's kingdom will come.
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