Tonight, I had the privilege to experience the Oxfam America Hunger Banquet. This interactive event demonstrates the poverty and hunger occuring in the world today. Their mission is to open participant’s eyes to the unequal distribution of food in the world. Participants are drawn a card that shows their economic stratus. The low income people of the world represent the majority of the world. While the upper class represents 20% the the world’s total population, consisting of mostly Americans.

I was given a card that placed me in the low income group during the banquet. I represented a woman named Adis from Ethiopia. I was placed in her shoes and was asked to sit on the floor with my fellow colleagues and eat a small meal consisting of bland rice and beans in a cup. I, Adis, struggle to provide my seven children with adequate meals and  go to sleep with an empty stomach. I have nothing left to sell to buy food and have no money. As I look to my right,  the middle class were seated at a table and given pasta and water. To the far end of the room, the upper class were given a nutritious meal consisting of chicken and salad. My meal portrayed the difficult access to food and water in poor areas of the country.

The Oxfam America Hunger Banquet brought forward the reality of hunger in our world. I am fortunate to live in a home where I do not have to struggle to feed myself and have everything that I desire. This experience opened my eyes and made me realize that I am lucky because, most of the world does not have the life I have and I was able to have a small perspective of the struggles most of the world faces today.