By Zoe Johannas
However, in a room of only 45, everyone is visible. At the Boston Action Corps’ Oxfam America Hunger Banquet, global poverty was put in context in an effective, observable, and powerful way where the planet sized numbers were brought down to size and made starkly real.
Suddenly, the numbers and statistics on global poverty became reality as only 15% of the attendees were a part of the high income group, only 35% were middle income, and the other 50%, cramped and sitting in the center of the floor, represented those in the lowest income group. Suddenly 3.5 billion was shrunk down to 24 participants with small cups of rice, with a table of only 6 looming above them with a full meal of lasagna and salad.
Once I could see the simulated separation between the world’s poorest and wealthiest, the stats and numbers that were almost unfathomable began to resonate in a new way. Having been placed in the middle income group, I hardly felt average with my meal of rice and beans, and realized anew that half the world was sustained on much less. What was even more hard-hitting was watching the high income group- the group that consists of almost every person I interact with- consist of such a small percentage of the participants. What’s more is that this group contains even many of those who are relatively poor by US standards. The world's high income category contains everyone with an income over $12,000, a salary just over half of what constitutes the United States poverty line.
Of the others attending the events, everyone had their own interpretations and takeaways from the scene unfolding around them. While some felt guilt about being placed in the high ranks of simulated society, others wondered how we could bridge the gap between the worlds’s wealthy and poor on the global scale and make the issues so visible within one room, visible across borders and oceans. Still others talked about more practical points of the issue, discussing food aid and the roles of local NGOs, showing not only how complex poverty can be, but also how we can all play a unique role in its solution.
Of the others attending the events, everyone had their own interpretations and takeaways from the scene unfolding around them. While some felt guilt about being placed in the high ranks of simulated society, others wondered how we could bridge the gap between the worlds’s wealthy and poor on the global scale and make the issues so visible within one room, visible across borders and oceans. Still others talked about more practical points of the issue, discussing food aid and the roles of local NGOs, showing not only how complex poverty can be, but also how we can all play a unique role in its solution.
As a part of a nearly 40 year tradition, The Oxfam America Hunger Banquet may not have been a perfect simulation of the devastation and horrors of worldwide famine and poverty, but it was a resounding success in bringing global hunger issues home. Suddenly, 50% of a population was a visible and comprehensible statistic and I was able to put something as large as half the world into perspective like never before. I gained a new understanding of the size and mass of this issue and what it will take to overcome it. Though simulation can only make us go so far to feel the strain of poverty, it was one small step towards overcoming the common practice of keeping the hungry out of sight and out of mind. Explaining and showing this issue in a whole new way helped us to see and grasp the magnitude of this issue, and helped us begin to grapple with the monumental solution that it requires.
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To do more, I encourage you to host your own Oxfam America Hunger Banquet or vow to skip meal and donate the money you save to Oxfam. Or, for a more creative way to give back this holiday season, check out Oxfam Unwrapped to give a gift that counts
Check out some more of the pictures from the Boston Action Corps' event below:
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