The third annual Oxfam Hunger Banquet brought University students, faculty and Baton Rouge community members together Wednesday evening to learn about poverty through the interactive event, which simulated poverty around the world and highlighted the escalating hunger problem in Baton Rouge.
“I’d rather see a sermon than just hear one,” said Kitchens on the Geaux member and Oxfam Hunger Banquet chairman Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez, a mass communication freshman.
Upon arriving, participants were randomly separated into low, middle or high-income groups.
The categories were arranged according to actual class statistics, so the low-income category was the largest, with 50 percent of participants.
Of the participants, 35 percent were in the middle-income category, and only a few individuals were assigned to the high-income group.
Members of Kitchens on the Geaux, a campus organization that works to increases awareness about food insecurity in Baton Rouge, read scenarios that might happen to individuals around the world who are affected by hunger.
The readings were interactive and caused members of each income level to react according to the scenario in each reading.
For example, one reading was about a middle-income farmer whose animals had sipped contaminated water and died. Subsequently, the farmer’s income decreased, and he could not provide food for his family.
The farmer, played by architecture junior Nathaniel Frank, had to move from the middle-income table to the floor, where the low-income individuals sat.
When it was time for dinner, meals differed by income level.
Low-income participants sat on the floor and ate a small portion of plain, white rice and drank from small cups of water “contaminated” by coffee grounds.
Middle-income participants ate a mixture of beans and rice with a piece of bread. They had clean water to drink.
High-income participants were served penne pasta with a tomato and cheese sauce. They drank juice and ice water, which was refilled if their glasses got too low. For dessert, they enjoyed cheesecake drizzled with a chocolate sauce.
As participants ate their respective meals, State Specialist for Urban Health in St. Charles Parish Annrose M. Guarino spoke about hunger in Louisiana.
“Although the U.S. has a very high standard of living compared to other nations, hunger is still a major issue here,” Guarino said.
According to the 2009 Feeding America Report, Louisiana ranks No. 1 for food insecurity in children under five years of age. Additionally, almost one in four people in Baton Rouge live below the poverty line.
Guarino challenged participants to think of ways they can improve the local hunger problem, but she also asked if they thought donations are a lasting solution.
“Employment and education is the way out of poverty,” Guarino said. “You are a force that can produce change.”
Food Procurement Assistant for the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank Amanda Eisman also attended the banquet.
“The face of hunger is changing. It’s people you don’t expect, like neighbors and classmates,” Eisman said.
Even University students are affected, and every donation to the food bank makes a difference, Eisman said.
