Poverty dinner attracts students

from the Scarlet and Black

By Jeff Raderstrong
Published: Vol 124, Issue 10

Millions around the world would relish the opportunity to experience Grinnell cuisine, bad though many say it is. Last Tuesday night, students contributed their $11 dining hall meal for a rice casserole to combat worldwide hunger.

The Grinnell College Christian Fellowship (GCCF) hosted a “Poverty Dinner” in the old Quad dining hall, serving a fortified rice-soy casserole and asking for donations from students for Kids Against Hunger, a non-profit that packages and ships meals to starving children around the world. About 80-100 students showed up and contributed a total of about $265. The amount raised is enough to fund 1,186 meals, at about 25 cents a piece.

The meals that Kids Against Hunger sends to over 40 developing nations are the same that were prepared by GCCF members for students to eat. The meals are “served at hunger camps around the world, basically for people who are on the verge of starving to death,” said Brad Bishop ’08, a member of GCCF and co-organizer of the event. “It’s the last case resort.”

Students at the event ate and talked with friends while reading the literature GCCF had provided about issues of starvation and global inequalities, including a “Poverty Quiz.” “We eat all this food and we don’t realize how good we have it,” said Greg Suryn ’11, an attendee.

The Poverty Dinner served two purposes for the GCCF organizers. Not only did it raise money to pay for the meals that will be packaged this Sunday at an in-town temporary Kids Against Hunger satellite station, but it also helped to raise awareness about global issues. “When you go to the dining hall all the time you forget that people will be really happy to have this [food].” said Lindsay Young ’08, another member of GCCF.

This is the second Poverty Dinner hosted by GCCF. Last spring, they organized a similar event to raise money for Kids Against Hunger, although there was no satellite packaging coinciding. GCCF has begun to focus more on social justice, and started distributing a new social justice newsletter this semester, called “SJ News,” among other things. “I’m really glad the fellowship [GCCF] is moving in this direction,” said Brian Smith ’09, another member of GCCF.

Others in GCCF agree that the group needs to do more with respect to social justice issues. “It comes out of feeling within GCCF that we hadn’t been as involved in doing social justice stuff,” said Kiri Aho ’08, a member of GCCF and another co-organizer of the event. “Social justice … is all wrapped up in my faith. It’s necessary to work for everyone to have a good life. This [dinner] is a small way to start.”