HDS Cancels Hunger Dinner

Last night's anticipated Hunger Awareness Dinner was cancelled due to a lack of student response, according to Publications and Communications Coordinator of Harvard Dining Services (HDS) Crista Martin.

According to Martin, at least 20 students were needed for the event, but as of late Monday morning only 11 were confirmed or even tentative.

The dinner was part of HDS' efforts to promote hunger awareness on campus. While HDS has sponsored awareness dinners in the past, this year's intended format was different.

HDS' new idea was to bring students to one location, the Winthrop House Junior Common Room, to dine tougher for the evening. Each participant would have been randomly assigned to a high, middle or low economic bracket that would reflect the quality of meal the students would receive.

"Economics is a fast and easy way to talk about hunger," Martin said.

The number of students assigned to each group would have reflected the actual world economic situation. Fifteen percent of the students would have belonged to the high economic group, which has at least an $8,900 annual income (based on world standards) and includes more than 94 percent of the American population.

Thirty percent of the students would have been placed in the middle economic bracket, reflecting annual earnings between $725 and $8,900. Fifty-five percent of the students would have been in the low economic group, which would correlate to the world population that earns less than $725 per year.

"The high group was going to have table service and elegant food, the middle group was going to be served family-style, and the low group would eat beans and rice for their meal," Martin said.

After dinner, students would have been encouraged to participate in discussions (Not Clear Data) of what the economic differences felt like. The group was also going to be addressed by Share Our Strength, a national hunger relief organization, and by Harvard's "Walk for Hunger" team leaders.

"I thought the meal would have been fascinating and also important to help students recognize that the dinner would have been divided according to world standards and would reflect the world population," Martin said.

Mindy M. Chen '02, who did not attend the event, said the experience of the event would have been important to students.

"A lot of times you hear about world hunger but you never know what it's actually like. I think this would have helped us understand class differences by watching other enjoy privileges," she said.

In addition to dining hall posters, HDS'publicity efforts included articles in the HDSnewsletter "Tidbits" and contacting variousstudent organizations that have taken an interestin world hunger.

Martin said HDS held off on publicizing theevent until two weeks ago, though the date of theevent had been set in late February.

"We were very aware that if we put up theposters and publicized too soon, it would all goby the wayside," she said. "We waited to promotethe event so that the idea wouldn't get old andthat students would still be interested in thedinner when the date came."

Martin said the students she has talked tosince the event's cancellation have said the lackof enthusiasm may have stemmed from the lack ofpublicity and a misunderstanding of the procedureof the dinner.

"I have gotten some great responses from thestudents that had signed up for the event," shesaid. "[They said] 'We were sad that it didn'thappen this year but we are eager to try it againnext year."

In addition to dining hall posters, HDS'publicity efforts included articles in the HDSnewsletter "Tidbits" and contacting variousstudent organizations that have taken an interestin world hunger.

Martin said HDS held off on publicizing theevent until two weeks ago, though the date of theevent had been set in late February.

"We were very aware that if we put up theposters and publicized too soon, it would all goby the wayside," she said. "We waited to promotethe event so that the idea wouldn't get old andthat students would still be interested in thedinner when the date came."

Martin said the students she has talked tosince the event's cancellation have said the lackof enthusiasm may have stemmed from the lack ofpublicity and a misunderstanding of the procedureof the dinner.

"I have gotten some great responses from thestudents that had signed up for the event," shesaid. "[They said] 'We were sad that it didn'thappen this year but we are eager to try it againnext year."