School students share, learn lesson about world hunger

from the Asheville Citizen Times

By Andre A. Rodriguez

Brennan Harlan didn’t seem to be loving her meager meal of rice, while her Carolina Day School classmates on the other side of the room enjoyed a three-course meal.

“It’s not really fair, but it’s what is going on in the world,” she said, realizing there are starving people elsewhere who would love to have her bowl of rice.

Harlan and her eighth-grade classmates were participating Tuesday in the school’s third annual Hunger Banquet, which splits the students into low-, middle- and high-income groups.

The low-income students were served a bowl of rice with no utensils. The middle-income group ate rice and beans with a plastic spoon.

Auzhela Bozeman, who was part of the middle-income group, was quick to key in on the fact that while she wasn’t enjoying the lasagna, salad, dinner rolls and dessert the high-income group received, “at least we’re not those guys.”

And that’s the point of the exercise, said middle school Principal Peggy Daniels, to get the students thinking about “those guys.”

“Whatever the reactions are, they’re good because they bring about discussion and an opportunity for kids to learn and to think about others and how we live and how others live,” she said.

Christian Humes seemed a little perturbed by his classmates in the middle- and low-income groups who came to stand around his table and stare down on his fine meal when the rice ran out. In the end, he decided to share.

“They started taking my stuff,” he said. “I felt kind of lucky that I got to eat, but then bad for them.”

He even felt a little guilty.

Following the meal the students separated into three classrooms to talk about their experiences, and how it relates to the plight of millions of the world’s population.

Fletcher Armstrong pointed out that toward the end of the meal, many of his classmates were trying to steal food from students in the high-income group.

“I think in the real world it would be a lot worse,” he said. “People would kill for food.”

The discussions got into how not having food can lead to poverty, illiteracy and war. The students started to think about ways to solve the problem, such as donating food and money and providing sustainable resources so people can feed themselves.

On the Net: www.hungerbanquet.org