Photo: Jacob Silberberg/Oxfam America

At an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet, the place where you sit, and the meal that you eat, are determined by the luck of the draw—just as in real life some of us are born into relative prosperity and others into poverty.

Unless you’ve been to one of these interactive events, it’s hard to explain how memorable, emotional, and inspirational it can be, to name just a few words we’ve heard from Oxfam supporters over the years. People often get in touch to tell us how a Hunger Banquet gave them a deeper understanding of hunger and poverty, or even a whole new perspective.

While this event has been a Thanksgiving seasonal tradition for nearly 40 years, we’ve seen social media bring a fresh energy to the scene that pushes the message far beyond the walls of the room and still captures that feeling of inspiration and connection.

So far, I’m impressed by the tweets I’ve read about people’s reactions to Oxfam America Hunger Banquets this fall. Believe me, I’m in the business of writing tweets–and I know how difficult it can be to convey such a BIG feeling in 140 characters. A few that caught my eye:

Just attended OXFAM’s #HungerBanquet !Great program! Loved the information and discussion! Raise awareness of world hunger! #OXFAM #CSU

— Perdeep Badhesha(@DeepNotShallow) October 16, 2012

Oxfam Hunger Banquet #dinner #rice instagr.am/p/QlKp19nmJg/

— Fiona Ian (@localskies) October 10, 2012

@hb_planning it was an enlightening experience! I was impoverished; but that was the tastiest rice I’ve had in my life

— SLiCE CSU (@slice_csu) October 23, 2012

OxFam Hunger banquet… #eyeopening

— Jess Ratliff (@jessygirl93) September 17, 2012

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2. Make it hands-on. We host a lot of [informational] tables about Oxfam at farmers’ markets and music festivals. At one festival, we wanted to offer people something more than a petition to sign. So we invited them to use food items, like seeds or beans, to decorate postcards with what they thought a world without hunger would look like, or to write or draw a message to share with their legislators. We ended up with about 60 hand-decorated cards. When we brought the cards to our next meeting with representatives, they paid attention. Signatures are great, but a handwritten note or picture feels more personal.

3. Connect your community to the world. In Des Moines, the Oxfam Action Corps combines legislative efforts with hands-on projects that make a difference in our city. Once a month, we volunteer at community gardens or help out at a local food pantry. Talking to [our fellow volunteers] helps make people  aware of Oxfam and the international angle to the issues. It’s also a great way to bring in new volunteers who are looking for ways to give back.

4. Reach out over a meal. Food brings people together in ways that you wouldn’t expect. It was an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet that first inspired me to work with Oxfam; I’ve been part of five Hunger Banquets, and each one is different. We co-organize these events with other groups, like the ONE Campaign or students at a local university, who can bring in additional people and ideas. We also co-hosted a potluck dinner with Oxfam’s Sisters on the Planet ambassadors in Iowa, and we’re planning another potluck in the spring. There are always good discussions during the meal, and afterward a lot of people come up to us wanting to get involved in our efforts.

If you want to get involved, apply here to join the Oxfam Action Corps in Des Moines and 14 other US cities.

About 250 high school students participated in an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet in Iowa last fall. Photo: Sarah Peck/Oxfam America

Take a look at our event calendar right now, and you’ll notice Oxfam events coming up at schools and universities around the country. Many respond to the current drought and famine in East Africa, whether by raising funds or raising awareness about the underlying issues. “[At] a huge school like Arizona State University, it’s very common to see students who have no knowledge of the global food crisis,” said Neekta Hamidi, a junior and Oxfam CHANGE Leader. “Usually, the only students who attend events are already aware of the problems.”

Hamidi and the ASU Oxfam Club plan to spread the word with an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet—an event that’s been the heart of Oxfam’s fall campaign against hunger for nearly four decades. Guests at a Hunger Banquet are randomly assigned to one of three different income levels; each group eats a corresponding meal, from lavish to sparse. Participants can also take on the roles of different people from around world and share their experiences with others.

Because of its interactive nature, “the Hunger Banquet appeals to students with all types of interests, majors, and backgrounds … anyone who just wants to learn something new,” said Hamidi. “And it’s easy to promote via Facebook or Twitter.” She noted that last fall’s event drew even more students than they expected, and that this year they hope to surpass those numbers.

So why does an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet inspire people to take action? Tsesa Monaghan, an Oxfam CHANGE Leader from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, said the answer lies in challenging preconceptions about hunger.

 “Our minds are wired to think on individual levels, not statistics of billions or millions or even hundreds. So while you can know the numbers, they’re pretty abstract,” said Monaghan. “But when you’re in a room and see your friends and peers sitting on the floor, representing those in poverty, it makes the matter so much more personal.” 

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Majora Carter, far right, fires up the crowd at a New York City Oxfam America Hunger Banquet earlier this week. Photo: Sarah Peck / Oxfam America

“You’re not going to like what I have to say,” warned the woman next to me. An instructor at a local college, she was among the 80 or so people who’d attended a Boston panel discussion last week in honor of the centennial of International Women’s Day. The panel was one of over 175 events nationwide organized by Oxfam America and our supporters this spring, all based around the theme of women and food.

It wasn’t the response I expected when I asked my neighbor what she thought of the panel. But I assured her I’d listen with an open mind.

She said that it was good to hear women’s stories from other parts of the world—referring to panelist Yvette Cissé, an Oxfam America partner and leader of an organic farmers’ cooperative in Mali. Cissé spoke via translator about the benefits she’s seen from growing organic cotton, such as more fertile soil and higher earnings that help women feed their families. “You can be an expert farmer, but if there’s not enough water, it’s a big problem,” said Cissé of the challenges caused by increasingly erratic rainfall. “Women are pulling water by hand from a 20- to 30-foot-deep well, or walking up to a mile to get water for their gardens.”

Still, the woman next to me explained, she sometimes worried that stories like this might divert our attention from ending hunger and poverty here in the US. Those problems may not be as intense, she said, but they’re real too, and they’re right on our doorstep.

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Sarah Peck is Oxfam’s email advocacy writer (and occasional photographer).

Not long ago I attended an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet® in Des Moines, Iowa, with over 200 people, most of them high school students from the World Food Prize Global Youth Institute. This was just one of hundreds of Hunger Banquets taking place around the country this Thanksgiving season.

To get a glimpse into what a Hunger Banquet looks like, check out some of my photos below, and hear from a few people who attended the event:

Photo: Sarah Peck / Oxfam America

“It’s one thing to talk about hunger, or to read about it. It’s another thing to actually experience it.”  – Event participant Read the rest of this entry »

Oxfam organizer Rasa Dawson.

Every year on the Thursday before Thanksgiving, thousands of Americans participate in Oxfam’s Fast for a World Harvest campaign—attending Oxfam America Hunger Banquets, skipping meals, or taking other actions to fight world hunger. Here’s Rasa Dawson, lead organizer for the campaign, with her thoughts on this annual tradition.

A few years ago, I organized an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet on a small college campus in rural Virginia. I remember we had high hopes that it would be a good event, but as we watched people pouring in the doors, we were shocked.  It wasn’t just students; it was professors, people from the local church, and community members—over 300 of them. 

Over the next hour and a half, it was awe-inspiring to watch the transformation in that room.  People shared food, laughed, told stories, and cried.  Three hundred strangers left the room not strangers any longer, but fellow travelers. They forged relationships because they shared the same fate that, as in real life, was given to them at random. 

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University of Kansas students Zach Bealer and Christina Henning show off their (temporary!) Oxfam tattoos at a Kansas City climate change event. Photo: Liliana Rodriguez / Oxfam America

I went to college in the late 1990s, at the tail end of the decade of the slacker. Back then, you might have seen a few activists here and there on campus, but mostly we cultivated an aura of general apathy right down to the laces of our Doc Martens. It was okay to care vaguely about stuff like women’s rights or the environment, but it wasn’t necessarily cool to show too much enthusiasm. If you wanted to make a statement, you might scrawl something enigmatic on your t-shirt with magic marker, dye your hair pink, and leave it at that.
At risk of showing my age, I’ll just go ahead and say it: things have changed.

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