Tickets still available for Thursday’s ‘Banquet’
On World Food Day, Oct. 16, Concordians are invited to take part in a Hunger Banquet sponsored by the Year of Peace Committee.
The banquet will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Valley Rental center, 803 Valley St. It is a free event, but participants need to pick up a ticket. They are available at:
- Cloud County Resource Center
- Concordia Lutheran Church
- First Presbyterian Church
- First United Methodist Church
- Manna House of Prayer
- Nazareth Motherhouse
- Neighbor to Neighbor
- Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church
- Rod’s Food Store
- The Baptist Church
Patterned on the Oxfam Hunger Banquets held across the country, the local event is designed to help people understand the causes of world hunger and access and distribution inequalities.
As guests arrive at the Hunger Banquet, they will draw tickets at random that assign them each to a high-, middle-, or low-income group, based on the latest statistics about the number of people worldwide living in poverty. Each income level receives a corresponding meal: The 20 percent in the high-income tier are served a full pasta meal; the 30 percent in the middle-income section eat a simple meal of rice and beans; and the 50 percent in the low-income tier help themselves to small portions of rice and water.
Donations to the Cloud County Resource Center and Food Bank and the Helping Hands Food Pantry at Manna House of Prayer will be accepted at the event, and the women who run those two programs will speak about who they serve and what is needed.
Toby Nosker of KNCK Radio will emcee the event, and all the food is being donated by Rod’s Food Store and Walmart.
World Food Day dates from 1945 when the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations was founded. And this year — designated the UN’s International Year of Family Farming — it’s particularly significant in a community like Concordia, said Amanda Wahlmeier, a member of the Year of Peace Committee.
She said that while many people think hunger is about too many people and too little food, it’s actually about inequalities in access to resources and inequities in food distribution.