In Need of Food

Last night, I went to an Oxfam banquet at my church. This week is Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.

I can tell you that the event last night really made an impact on me.

When we entered the room, we were all given a ticket that had a paragraph about someone. Some of us were low income, some were middle income and some were high income. I happened to be low income.

Once everyone had a ticket, we were taken to different places in the room for the meal. The high income were at a table that was all decorated like a table in a high end restaurant. They had a waiter as well. They were given a full meal with spaghetti, salad and a drink. The middle income were taken to a different table with rice, a fork and water. The low income were on the floor on pillows and given rice and water (without a fork).

I was actually only allowed to have half portion of rice, or half a bowl.

I remember at one point finishing eating in about 5 minutes and I looked at the people at the high income table and they were not even close to being done. I thought to myself how obvious the difference in the meals were.  While they were still eating, we were done and still hungry. The truth is that people around the world are not getting enough food to eat...

The rice was not really filling and as I looked at what the high income people were eating, it honestly made me frustrated to watch what they were eating. And then I thought about all of the people in the world who live on rice and water and that's it... They don't have a kitchen full of food to go home to. It made me realize how really lucky I am to have food.

Later in the evening, the high income people gave some of their food to the low and middle income people and it was a nice relief. I can only imagine what it's like in real life when people are given food who desperately need it. I was so thankful to the high income people for giving me some food.

This whole experience really opened my eyes to the needs of the world as a whole and made me realize that I am insanely lucky.

Here are a few facts that I jotted down during the event that I found interesting:

* 925 million people worldwide struggle with chronic hunger

*2.5 billion people worldwide live in poverty

*Almost 46 million people in the US live in poverty

If you ask me, that's too many people...