Meals served range from sparse to relatively lavish
There was something different about the banquet held in the Russell House Ballroom Tuesday.
Some attendees sat on stacks of newspaper and ate rice with their hands, while others sat at tables with white tableclothes and ate a full meal of spaghetti, salad and sweet tea.
The “hunger banquet,” part of USC’s second-annual “Food Justice Week,” saw participants divided into disparate socioeconomic classes, which aimed to reflect the reality of poverty throughout the world.
Suzanne Hackett, director of Columbia transitional housing group Hannah House; returning Peace Corps participant Howard Glenn; and Robert Rolfe, an international business professor who teaches classes in Tanzania, told stories of experiencing hunger around the globe — and here in Columbia.
They told stories of sewage flooded streets and small slums packed with millions of starving people, and Rolfe spoke of meeting people in Africa who don’t have much hope to improve their situation.
“Many people work hard — harder than I do — but their ability to reach the next level is limited,” he said.
Hackett encouraged participants to work to raise awareness of the issue of poverty.
“Hold each other accountable, and change the world,” she said.
Service sorority Omega Phi Alpha sponsored the event and paired with Heifer International to donate two goats to underdeveloped countries as a source of food, milk and income.