Stockton 'Hunger Banquet' Highlights Scope Of World Poverty

A Hunger Banquet may sound like a bit of an oxymoron, but that's the idea for an event that’s happening in Stockton Thursday night.

Attendees at the University of the Pacific’s Hunger Banquet will draw straws to see who dines on steak and potatoes, or maybe a middle-income chicken dinner, or scraping by with just a plate of beans and rice. Seating varies from a nice dinner table to a seat on the floor.

Laurie Lichter-Heath is coordinating the event, and says the dinner guests' odds will resemble the world’s population.

“Ten percent of the world is in the high income, and 20 percent are in middle income, and 70 percent are low income and don’t know where their next meal is going to come from,” she says.

The event is a way to underscore how many in this world go hungry, Lichter-Heath says. With 95 million people going hungry every day, getting a place at the table is only for a fortunate few.

“Like life, you don’t know who you’re going to be born into, so it’s the luck of the draw and they will also be given the life, a name of a person and you’ll be a sheepherder,” she says.

Proceeds from the $5 admission will go towards the Second Harvest Food Bank and the on-campus food pantry for University of the Pacific students in need.

Lichter-Heath adds there’s cake at the end of the meal, but like real life, not everyone gets dessert.