Jejfre), S Hampl," Ph.D., R.D .• Divisionof Preventive and Behavioral Medicine,DeCJarrmellt of Medicine, University ofM~sacJlIIsert; Medical School. r-vorcester,Massachusetts 01655;Tel: (508) 856-2427;Fax: (508) 856-3840;[email protected] .vI. I,an Zyl, ,H.Sc.,Department (:(Animal Science,Clliversit)' of Nebraska-Lincoln,.4-214 Marvet Baker Hall, Lincoln,.\ebraska 68583-0908Favrene L. Hamoux, Ph.D., R.D.,Sane)' M. Beets, Ph.D., R.D.,Department oi Nutritional Science andDi~tecics, universicy of Nebraska-Lincoln, 316 Ritch Leverton Hall.Lincoln, Sebraska 68583-0806
"",'\utnor for correspondence
1~74. the United Nations boldly setj that undernutrition would cease
to exist within a decade.' Despite thenumerous rood and social programs ot:'ferinz assistance. the number or under-nourished people has continued to in-crease since that rime." Because of this.it is important for college-level nutri-tion programs to effectively offercoursework related to internationalhunger and food insecurity.
Recently, a growing trend amonguniversities has been to emphasize glob-alization in their curricula.i'Io meet thisobjective in an evening Introduction roNutrition course, we decided ro presentinformation about the dietary intake ofother countries. Traditionally. this mightbe accomplished by offering samples offoods from foreign countries; however,our intent \vas ro present a world viewthat was perhaps more realistic.
During the class preceding our ex-ercise, students (n = 30) were re-minded that we would be discussinginternational nutrition in the next classsession. Thev were rold to come toclass hunm ..since dinner would beprovided fo~them' by the nutrition de-~ent. The students were led to be-
mat they would feast on a smor-iasbord ofin~ernationaI foods. Instead,~ur class held "a hunger banquet. Theconcept of a hunger banquet wasadapted from a similar exercise devel-oped by OxFam America. an organiza-
GEM NO. 269
Visualizing World Hunger
rion in Boston, MA. which monitorsnutritional inadequacies and food in-security around the world. OxFamAmerica uses a hunger banquet as afundraiser, and peacefulness among thenations is emphasized. In contrast, ourpurpose was to modify the hungerbanquet for secondary education anduse it as an enjoyable and effectivemethod for educating students aboutthe prevalence of undernutrition.
Prior to class.students were assignedto one of three groups by drawingnumbers from a-bag, Twenty studentswere assigned to group three, sevenstudents were assigned to group two,and three students were assigned togroup one. The students assi~ed togroup three represented the 65% of theworld's population who eat poorly. par-ticularlv those who live in Third Worldcountries in Asia or sub-Saharan Africa.These Third World students were told tosit on the floor and were given only riceto eat and water to drink:.
The srudents assigned to group rworepresented the 25% of the world's pop-ulation who have 'afood intake that isgenerally adequate but may be 10\" inkey nutrients. These students sat huddledtogether at a table and were servedbread.a potato dish. a pasta dish. and water,
The students assigned to group onerepresented the 10% of the world'spopulation who have adequate re-sources for food and eat as many Amer-icans do. To further exaggerate thispoint, these students sat at an elaboratelyset table, complete with a tablecloth,candlelight ..and fine dishes.They wereserved liberal amounts of roast beer,macaroni and cheese, carrots. rolls. or-anges, cheesecake,and candv,along witha variety of sodas and juices (Fig.-l).
Based upon feedback: gathered bythe instructors, the hunger banquet wasquite successful in showing studentsthat most of the world's people are poorand cannot afford to eat a variety offoods. Coming to class hungry helpedthe students visualize world hungermuch more easily than 'if they hadcome to class after eating. The studentswere .aware .nor only of the' foods of-fered to them but also of their posicionand status during the banquet.To them,it seemed ironic that the majority of theclassshould have to sit on the floor eat-ing only rice, while there were JUSt
. three students nearby who had more
food than they could possibly eat. Thestudents in group one remarked thatthey felt guilty having so much food,which they could not share with theirclassmates: All around the classroom.the students' comments to the insrruc-tors and to each other showed that theyunderstood the inequity or r-ooddistri-bution throughout the world, withincountries, and even within households.
All supplies and foods were pur-chased with departmental funds at a lo-cal grocery store for less than S40. Therice was donated and prepared by oneof the university's residence hall roodservices. Iflack of funding is an obsta-cle. one option is to have-a small classfee to pav for expenses.
For- publiciry. a photographer andjournalist from the university's news-paper were invited to the hunger ban-quet.A photograph and caption in tilepaper the following dav informedother students and faculty about worldhunger and some of th~ activities ~fthe ;utrition department. .-
Because citi;ens of Third Worldcountries do not have access to pro-grams such as Food Stamps or the Spe-cial Supplemental Nutrition Programfor Women. Infants, and Children(WIC), undernutrition is especiallydevastating for them. Nevertheless.food inequity is not limited to foreigncountries. Students should be re-minded of the likelihood that there arepeople within their own communities
.: .' Tltird World , Ri•• willi w_ .SocoodWorU PtiotMs, pull.
•••i••••wit>_
i1.ut kif •• ,,"".••• Hi&&"".
__ • "' rolls. li_ wit>;........u4~wnII, •••• a04j_
First Wtrld
Figure 1. Menu for hunger banquet.
~}!-;;:~~1
who do not have enough food to eat.To encourage students to learn moreabout issues related to hunger and foodinsecurity, extra credit could be offeredto students for volunteering at a localfood bank or communirv meal site.
Because it was offere'd in an Intro-duction to· Nutrition course, thehunger banquet described here wassuccessful in letting both nutrition andnon-nutrition majors visualize the un-
fairness and unacceprabiliry of worldhunger. It was our hope that each stu-dent would take these lessons and par-ticipate, even in a small way, in ensur-ing that every man, woman, and childhas sufficient food to eat.
REFERENCES
1. Wardlaw GM. Insel PM, Seyler MF.Contemporary nutrition: issues and
~L-t .
insights. 2nd Ed. St. Louis: Mosby.1994.
., Mathia GA. Rivera-Suarez N,Missiaen M. The role of trade andfood aid in meeting global foodneeds. In: Nutrition: eating for goodhealth. USDA Bulletin No. 685.Washington. DC: U.S. Departmentof Agriculture. 1994: 104-6.
3. Spear B. Multiculturalism. lnc.Transition 1992;61:12-86.
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