Bringing hunger home: Diners at St. Paul's, Duluth, experience a graphic demonstration of world hunger

Children's reaction is "an Epiphany moment" for adults

by the Rev. Kate Hennessy

On Sunday, March 2, parishioners at St. Paul’s, Duluth, had the opportunity to experience hunger awareness in an up close and personal way at the MDG Hunger Awareness meal sponsored by the Stone Soup MDG Team of St. Paul’s Church. This was part of the MDG pilot project that St. Paul’s is participating in, along with three other churches in the diocese. The 52 people attending the program were randomly divided among tables representing income and resources of people around the world. One table, serving eight people and representing the richest part of the First World, was lavishly decorated. These diners were served a multi-course meal by waiters, consisting of appetizers, meats, vegetables, desserts, and beverages. Six round tables serving 38 people represented those in the world who have minimally-adequate food and other resources. They were served soup, bread, an apple slice, and a beverage in a cup. The desperately-poor rest of the world was represented by seven long tables seating about 65 people. They received only stale bread and soup.

Rector Bill Van Oss commented, “One of the things that surprised me was how uncomfortable the people sitting at the 'first world' table were as they were served a gourmet meal while so many others just had thin soup. They had an awareness of the needs of people all around them. So often we are able to ignore the suffering that is all around us, especially when it's happening on the other side of the world.”

"...and a little child shall lead them"

Sue van Oss spoke to the children of St. Paul's about the hunger awareness program.
Photos for this article: Susan Anderson

A separate program was conducted for the children of the parish by Sue van Oss, Director of Christian Formation at St. Paul’s. After a graphic illustration about how the world’s population is divided, cookies were distributed according to how the world's food distribution works, with 80% of the cookies going to the one child who was sitting at the North America table. The remaining 20% of the cookies were handed out to the other six tables.

Sue van Oss says, "It made an immediate impact on the kids, who voiced their shock at how much was given to just one child and their amazement at how little so many were given. And yet, at the largest table of children, who represented Asia, where only six cookies were handed out, not enough for even one for each child; the first reaction from many of them was to share. Six children each grabbed a cookie. The adults present assumed they would put them right in their mouths and eat them. Instead, without a word from anyone, they broke them and handed them out to the other children at the table. An Epiphany moment indeed, as one adult wondered out loud, "How come children get it so easily and it takes adults so long to figure it out?” Click here to learn more about the children's hunger awareness program at St. Paul's.

Progress toward the goal

Following the meal, the MDG Team members facilitated a discussion at each of the tables about the goals of the MDG project at St. Paul’s. Team coordinator Nelson Thomas reports that St. Paul’s has achieved about 33% of its goal to have 100 pledges of 0.7% of income by Easter. After the pledges are gathered, the congregation will engage in a collective decision-making process to determine how to distribute the funds toward eliminating global poverty by way of an MDG project. In addition to moving forward toward their goal, the Hunger Awareness Lunch seems to have made a real difference for those who attended. As one person who ate at the “wealthy” table said, “It is so different to feel it than to know it!”