World Hunger Day teaches
compassion for homelessness

By Amber Davis
The Metropolitan

World Hunger Day, internationally recognized Oct. 16, is the beginning of a fall campaign against hunger and homelessness. Students at Metro and across the nation will participate in activities to learn about these social problems.

Julie Miles, executive director of the National Student Campaign against Hunger and Homelessness, said World Hunger Day is sponsored by the United Nations. More than 400 colleges and some high schools sponsor activities such as sleepouts, fasts, and letter writing drives to members of Congress.

Aurariaâs chapter of the Colorado Public Interest Research Group will sponsor a canned food drive and a sleepout on campus. Students will construct a ãshantytownä of cardboard boxes for the sleepout and camp out over night. Dates for these events were not available at press time.

CoPIRGâs Anne Lassegård, a Metro senior and head of Aurariaâs hunger and homelessness campaign, will also attend the World Hunger Day conference Oct. 23 in Washington D.C.

Ralph Nader, who founded an advocacy group for environmental and social issues in 1971 called Public Citizen and a community activistsâ group in 1982 called Essential Information, will be one of the keynote speakers.

One of the featured activities, called the Hunger Banquet, will illustrate how different classes of people eat. Students at Auraria held a similar banquet called the World Reality Luncheon on Oct. 15.

Before the banquet, every guest gets a ticket indicating whether they are upper, middle or lower class. Guests are then served a meal according to their class. Meals range from prime rib for the upper class, served by waiters, to self-serve rice bowls for the lower class.

Over the course of the meal, the master of ceremonies announces catastrophes such as a drought, national disaster or war, which can cause changes in peopleâs socioeconomic class. The participants can move up or down in class throughout the banquet, depending on the circumstances.

ãEven if people are not active participants, we want to raise awareness and hopefully, all the programs we have set up will do that,ä Miles said.