 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
How Hunger Feels
Watch This Video
| Windows Media |
  |
| QuickTime | |
| MPEG |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|||
|
Many banquets give you a choice of chicken or beef. But there’s one where guests are divided differently—by an assigned lot in life. And the experience can be a real eye-opener. Reed Galin reports. |
|||
 |
|||
 |
New Items | Additional Stories | Archives | ||
SCRIPT:
(Locator: Denver, CO)It’s dinner time, and on the menu is a “taste” of reality.
Banquet Coordinator: “You all are going to be eating something different.”
Participant: “Macaroni and cheese.”
That’s what the teenagers in the group designated as “working poor” get at this hunger banquet, an activity meant to be a literal lesson in what others around them face.
Participant: “It’s completely like uneven.”
The “middle class” meal is a little better.
Participant: “Spaghetti and salad.”
The best food and service go to the “upper class.”
The “homeless” get the least.
Participant: “It’s definitely canned soup and it’s not that great.”
Participants are from United Methodist churches in Oklahoma. Denver Urban Ministries sponsors the eye-opening event.
Participant: “It was good. We just needed a lot more.”
Some assumed it was against the rules to offer their food to others.
Jessica Grace, 15-year-old: “As my friend was coming over to me with the cake, I started crying.”
The students also learn more about who the homeless are. They plant vegetables in a community garden and volunteer for other projects.
Miya Stevens, 18-year-old: “I didn’t know that there were 60 percent homeless that were families, they’re people that have kids.”
Allison Bevers, 17-year-old: “My heart pretty much broke tonight when they talked about just the kids being homeless.”
The hunger banquet challenges students to step outside their circle of friends—and their comfort zones.
Carolyne Schultz, Denver Urban Ministries: “Not everyone’s like us, and to respect everyone they see who’s different.”
And these are lessons that could last far beyond one night’s meal.
Allison Bevers, 17-year-old: “I need to do something, not just in the next couple of weeks, but possibly career-wise. I can do something.”
TAG:
Denver Urban Ministries also operates a food bank and requests for help are more than one-third greater this year. Organizers say it’s because of the difficult economy.
For more information, contact Denver Urban Ministries at 303-355-4896.