Put on by Students for Fair Trade (the same group that spearheaded the effort that got fair trade bananas on campus last year), and modeled after OxFam's program, we learned about hunger in the world and discussed the philisophical issues associated.
But! It's not called a banquet for nothing. As we entered, we drew a colored slip of paper. My red slip was "low-income" and put me sitting on the floor. There were two other groups as well--"middle class" in chairs to my right and "upper class" to my left. So... after a bit they announced we'd be eating. The "upper class" received a full meal, while the middle class received a plate with rice and beans and a cup of water. I got a half cup of rice and a cup of brownish water. :<
The whole experience was rather touching. I came the banquet hungry, and after the rice and water, I was still hungry. Though I went back to the dorm and ate again afterward, this isn't just a game. It's rather sobering to realize that sooo many people live like this every day. 58,000 people in St. Louis alone don't know where their next meal is coming from.
Around 1 billion people suffer from chronic hunger. It's powerful to be hungry. Joseph Conrad shows it in an interesting light in Heart of Darkness:
No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze. Don't you know the devilry of lingering starvation, its exasperating torment, its black thoughts, its sombre and brooding ferocity? Well I do. It takes a man all his inborn strength to fight hunger properly. It's really easier to face bereavement, dishonour, and the perdition of ones soul . . .
