This post was written by Hatchet Reporter Marielle Mondon.
The Office of Community Service hosted its annual Hunger Banquet Wednesday night, attracting approximately 70 guests on the premise of free food, but giving them an experience they didn’t expect.
Before entering the banquet, students were told to select a piece of paper, which would then determine their experience for the evening. Each piece of paper assigned guests to one of three social groups: high-income, middle-income and low-income/poverty level.
“Look around and see that inequality is everywhere,” said Alison McDougal, a senior human services major who helped plan the event. McDougal is also a teaching assistant for a class called Empowerment for Social Change and her students in the course also helped organize the event.
The third floor ballroom of the Marvin Center was decorated to represent the different areas of Washington, D.C. High-income individuals sat at tables with catered meals in the Northwest region of the ballroom, middle-income individuals sat in chairs and shared pizza. In the Southwest and Southeast quadrants, low-income individuals sat on the floor and were given small bags of chips.
“This is designed to make people feel uncomfortable,” McDougal said.
Organizers of the event sought to intensify inequality by scolding lower class individuals, constantly telling them to stop talking and stay where they were told. When higher income guests tried to donate their food to those seated on the floor, they were forbidden from doing so.
Although the hunger banquet has been held for many years, this is the second year OCS has decided to make it centralized to D.C., aiming to help students look outside the bubble of Foggy Bottom.
“People come to GW because they want to be citizens of D.C.,” McDougal said. “We’re trying to bring it into perspective. What are we not seeing?”
Publicity for the event stayed vague about details concerning the evening, intending to give attendees the most unexpected experience, said Bill Collier, a senior working for OCS.
“The main focus is to educate people,” Collier said. “It’s tough to describe what it is. It’s hard to put that in a flyer.”
Ashum Narla, a freshman attending the event, said that he didn’t know what he was heading into by going.
“It’s been very surprising,” said Narla, who was assigned lower-class status for the evening. “It’s better than just sitting around, listening to a speaker.”
Several representatives from OCS provided statistical information about homelessness and poverty in D.C., providing an introduction for keynote speaker Lawrence Cann, founder and CEO of Street Soccer USA, a nonprofit organization aimed toward ending homelessness through soccer mentoring programs.
“Homelessness is a really expensive problem,” Cann said. “The importance of street soccer comes through empowerment.”
As a community-based program, Street Soccer USA helped unify the main theme of the event: raising awareness about poverty in the D.C. area.
“We left everyone with a challenge. We just want people to go out and get involved,” McDougal said. “Even if you see someone on the street, you acknowledge that they’re a human being.”
