Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Hunger Banquet

On Friday my small group is doing the outreach, and it's a Hostel Night, which means that we give our guests free dinner. We decided to do a Hunger Banquet again.

Before you become confused by the oxymoron, a Hunger Banquet is when we divide the people into rich, middle class, or poor, and they are treated (and fed) according to their social divisions. It's supposed to be the same ratio as the world, but I don't think it's completely accurate, but with 50 people it's hard to be accurate.
Anyhow, the poor people will sit on the floor and eat rice and water. The middle class will have more of a family style dinner, spaghetti or something, and the upper class will have a 3 course dinner with candles and waiter and sparkling grape juice. The poor people also won't be served their food right away, but will have to wait.
The only rules are that you can't change to a class higher than yours. The people in middle and upper class are welcome to share with those in the poor class, but they are not obligated to do so. We don't instruct them or give them permission; we simply assign them to their classes and see what they choose to do with that. The poor are allowed to go to the tables to ask for food, but they are not allowed to sit there with them.
Last time a girl at the middle class table ran over with her food and gave it to the poor people; she couldn't eat a thing. Her friend was sitting at the wealthy table enjoying her dinner, and didn't so much as blink an eye in the direction of the poor souls sitting on the floor.
After everyone has eaten, we discuss how each group felt. The poor share their anger and frustration ("I thought this was a free dinner! Why didn't the rich people share! They had too much to eat! Look at all their left-overs!") and everyone has a chance to express what they were feeling the whole time. Last time a man who had been sitting at the wealthy table said, "I didn't feel anything, I didn't even notice the poor people until they complained. Now I feel guilty, but I'm full and don't have any food left to give them."
After everyone has had a chance to speak, we watch a slideshow which just breaks your heart about world hunger and stuff...but it's cool because we talk about how there is enough food to go around, we just don't share it. Marco will give a talk, which is good because he is able to put into words the conflicts everyone is feeling, but he does it so eloquently and honestly.
After everything, we all join together at the middle class tables and eat the extra food.

Anyhow, that's a brief summary of what is going to happen on Friday night, so I'd love it if you prayed for this outreach. Pray that we are prepared with all the information. Pray that we have good conversations with the guests. Pray that guests come!
pray that staff are unified!!

3 comments:

justmeghs said...

haha. but it turned into something even better...puddle jumping!
are your shoes dry yet?

Marco said...

Meghan! I hope you didn's starve with the hunger banquet. Anyway, your blog has been tagged. To know what it means you have to read my blog... it would be cool to answer the questions!

Anonymous said...

That's absolutely amazing...
~Buster
(excited about this weekend)