On Thursday, Amnesty International hosted the Oxfam Hunger Banquet, a dinner and educational event marked by sadness, reflection, and a desire to help people who are most in need.
The banquet was a metaphor for global poverty and hunger. An Oxfam International representative opened the banquet, calling for attendees to combat the world hunger famine which affects “nearly 800 million people [in the world]” and asking for people to sign petitions to “put pressure on Congress not to cut the foreign aid budget.”
To further educate people on the class system that permeates the world, attendees were segmented into three different tiers — lower class, middle class, and upper class — based on their donation size. Lower and middle-class attendees were served a meal from Qdoba; upper-class attendees received a three-course meal from Brick Pizzeria, along with dessert from Dunkin’ Donuts and Insomnia Cookies. All the meals were donated by Hoboken businesses.
Attendees were assigned people in their respective income classes. First-year student Eric DeVico, originally a middle-class attendee, was assigned “Lucia.” Lucia was a middle-class woman from Houston, Texas, who “lost [her] home due to extreme flooding from Hurricane Harvey this past fall.” DeVico, acting as Lucia, was moved from the middle-class table to the lower-class table because of Lucia’s loss in Hurricane Harvey.
“I was humbled by being moved to the lower-class section,” said DeVico. Lower-class attendees ate in their laps rather than at a table like the middle-class attendees, a metaphor for the hardship that lower-class people have to face. DeVico finished his lower-class meal of rice and beans in under one minute. “In real life, I’m not lower-class,” so having to eat a lower-class meal “puts things into perspective.”
Some of the upper-class attendees who were served a three-course meal, instead of being humbled by the event, felt unsettled. Fourth-year student Kiera Sheridan, who was upper-class, said, “It made me uncomfortable eating, looking up, and seeing [the lower-class eating only rice and beans].”
Charles Manzari, another upper-class attendee, also appeared shocked. “Here in America,” said Manzari, “you could be the lowest of the low [yet still be considered upper-class].”
Amnesty International hopes that through this event, they can help the “approximately 815 million people who suffer from chronic hunger worldwide,” they said in an email. Attendees were encouraged to donate either money or food perishables to attend the event.
Amnesty International donated all the proceeds to Oxfam International and Hoboken Homeless Shelter.
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