When first entering the hall in which the Oxfam Hunger Banquet was held, I was handed one of three different types of cards: low income, middle income, and high income. This card identified my socio-economic status for the evening. After receiving a low income card, I realized that I would be sitting on the floor for the duration of the banquet. Once I seated myself on the floor, I actually took a moment to read the card that I received.

My card told the story of a 45-year-old poor woman form Ethiopia named Demitu. Demitu is a mother to nine children, in addition to being a hardworking farmer. She had become a member of a group that brings farmers together and provides them with resources they can use to improve their production due to the unpredictable consequences of the weather. The investment that Demitu has in this group allows her to afford to buy better grains to bring a plentiful harvest.

As more people entered the room, I observed that the distribution of the people among the groups was uneven. When the presentation started, the picture became quite clear. The high income group consists of approximately 20% of the population and has an income of about $6,000 a year. They are lucky enough to have access to medical care and live in comfort and a secure home. The middle income group makes up about 30% of the population and has an income ranging from $1,032 – $6,000 a year. Their occupation would most likely be a day laborer. Their small income allows for electricity and schooling, which would be used to educate the boys of the family.

Finally, the low income group, the group that I was a part of, makes up roughly 50% of the population. This group makes less than $1,032 a year and faces the daily difficulty of finding shelter and food for their children. The mother of the family would most likely eat less in order to provide more for the family. In most cases, no one in the family consumes nearly the proper amount of daily nutrition. Adequate healthcare does not exist and mothers tend to lose 1-2 children before reaching the age of 5. Members of this group would typically work on the land, but would forfeit 75% of their yield to the plantation owner.

After this overwhelming information was provided, we were shown examples of how people were able to move up and down in class. It is very easy for people to shift down a class in comparison to people moving up in class. Some would even have to temporarily move down a class in order to be able to provide for their family.

When it came to the time in which each group ate, I noticed substantial differences between classes. The high income group consumed a nutritious well-balanced meal consisting of salad, chicken, pasta and rolls. When observing their table settings, there were table cloths with glass plates, wine glasses for drinks, silverware, folded napkins and even rose shape butter for the rolls! The middle income group was offered plain pasta and rolls, served with water. While their table had a table cloth, their plates and forks were plastic. In addition, when this group was announced to eat, the ladies were told to wait as the men served themselves first. Lastly, the low income group (my group) was given rice and beans to eat out of a paper cup with a plastic spoon. The table that the food was served on did not have a tablecloth on it like the others did. Similarly, the ladies of the low income group were told to wait until the men served themselves first to ensure they were fed.

After receiving my rice and returning to my seat on the floor, I was forced to think about the living conditions of the low income class. I’ll admit, the rice and beans were pretty good, but the social imbalance started to make me wonder. How long would this keep a person fed? What about balanced nutrition? Do they have any other options? This experience really changed my perspective of how I view things. It also made me realize the struggles that many people face on a daily basis. It has made me even more thankful for what I have, who I am, and where I am. I am inspired to do more to help those who are not as fortunate as I am.

Tonight LC 13 and I attended the Oxfam Hunger Banquet in the Wagner College Faculty Dining Hall. Walking in, I had no idea what kind of “banquet” this was going to be. I understood it was to raise awareness for world hunger but that was about it and I could not understand how world hunger and a banquet where we were going to be fed was going to be intertwined. To my surprise, as I walked in I was given a green piece of paper and was directed to sit at a table that was set with wine glasses, silverware, dishes and bread and butter (As shown in the photo below). To me, it was like a place setting at a fancy restaurant. I was very confused. The confusion grew when I looked around and saw some students directed to sit on the floor and others at a regular, standard table with a white cloth.

During the lecture discussing the multitude of poverty and hunger within the world, I was shocked at the statistics of how many people live with chronic hunger and malnourishment. I was particularly shocked that every 11 and a half seconds a child dies because of malnourishment. I really began to be grateful for the middle-upper class family I was born into. The speakers used my classmates as examples to show the social mobility that is possible and I also realized that no one from the upper class, where I was sitting, was asked to step down to a lower class table.

I was intrigued at how each person had no control over where they sat at the banquet, it was completely random. This shows the way people are born into a social class and how there’s no control over what their social status will be. This lecture really opened my eyes to no matter how hard people even worked, like the factory workers or the pickers in the field, one day could change your whole life and social status just by one unexpected event like a natural disaster in the case of the plantations.

In the same way, the people of the lower class in poverty had almost no choice in the employment and education opportunities in their lives. The lower class had to take whatever job was given to them. In the case of Pablo, who stood up against the maltreatment, he was fired. This made me realized how difficult it is for anyone in the lower class to move up or make any change in their lives because of how limited they are. The speakers emphasized almost no children exceed 8th grade and barely any girls are even sent to school. This leaves even less opportunity to prosper. The Oxfam Hunger Banquet truly opened my eyes to the distinct social class differences and the extreme poverty still evident in the world today, whether we see it in our own neighborhoods or not.