The Connection

Thirty youth from area middle and high schools gathered on Sept. 18 at their local church in Burke to experience a “hunger banquet” to increase their awareness of poverty and hunger in the world, Haiti and in Northern Virginia. When these students from Lake Braddock, Robinson and West Springfield gathered for their weekly meeting at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they were unaware of what was in store for them. Their leaders divided the students randomly into three groups—seating four students at an elegant dining table, nine students in a circle on folding chairs and the remaining 25 on cardboard laid out on the floor. The three groups represented the distribution of wealth in the world—10 percent in the high-income level, 20 percent in the middle-income level and the remaining 70 percent at the lowest level of wealth.

The highest income group was treated to a delicious cheesecake dessert, the middle group each received a large chocolate chip cookie and the poverty level group was given a small scoop of cold sweetened rice on a paper plate without a fork or spoon. Natalie Bolton, a student at Robinson who received the cold rice, said “this exercise really brought home the fact that millions of people don’t have enough nutritious food to eat each day and that just finding and cooking food to feed a small family is a major undertaking.” Hannah Van Dam was amazed at the sheer number of hungry people worldwide and surprised to learn that there were so many hungry people locally in Virginia. Kumen Johnson from Lake Braddock said that he had “discovered how poor many Americans in our area are” when, as part of his Eagle Scout project, he undertook a large sock collection drive for The Lamb Center in Fairfax City.

After eating the different “desserts” the leaders gave each student a number of “wealth coins” which represented the income level for his/her assigned group. They were then asked to choose from a list of how they would spend their income: shoes, food, clothing, housing, car, video games, clean water, et., for a family of four. All the youth assigned to the lowest income group were “shocked and amazed” at only being able to purchase minimal amounts of food and clothing.

During the final portion of the “hunger banquet,” guest speakers pointed out the key facts and reasons for hunger in the world. Videos were also shown on efforts to alleviate poverty and hunger in Haiti by the Church of the Nativity in Burke and The Lamb Center’s efforts to help the poor and homeless in central Fairfax.

All of the youth agreed that the “hunger banquet” was “eye-opening” and many committed to “getting involved.”