UO Oxfam America Hunger Banquet

About this event

Hunger is not an accident of nature, but a result of how resources get distributed. The UO Oxfam Hunger Banquet is an immersive event designed to make food distribution impossible to ignore. When you arrive at this event, you draw a card at random, and it will assign you to a high-, middle-, or low-income tier, in proportions drawn from current global inequality statistics. The event meal distribution will go like this:

• Twenty percent of guests are seated at tables and served a full meal.

• Thirty percent receive rice and beans.

• The remaining half sit on the floor with a small portion of rice and water.

Nobody chooses their tier, and that is the point. After the meal, everyone comes together to talk about what they experienced and what can be done with it. Oxfam has been running Hunger Banquets for more than fifty years, beginning with the 1974 Fast for a World Harvest, when 250,000 people across the United States skipped a meal to take a stand against hunger and inequality. Since then, nearly a million people have attended one of Oxfam's Banquets.

We are also running a campus-wide food drive. Everything collected goes to the Student Food Pantry . We encourage donations of non-perishable food items, including canned beans, canned proteins (such as tuna), spices, condiments, and holiday foods such as canned cranberry sauce. Other non-perishable food donations are also welcome!

Since 1974, Oxfam has been working with volunteers to create awareness of hunger and inequality. Oxfam Hunger Banquets give you the opportunity to make a difference, both locally and globally. They are volunteer-led interactive events that bring statistics about poverty to life.

RSVP for the event is encouraged but not required.

UO Oxfam Hunger Banquet and Food Drive is sponsored by the Global Justice Project. This event is part of International Education Month (IEM) programming. View the full calendar of IEM events here: https://international.uoregon.edu/IEM .