Students organize banquet to educate about hunger

During his childhood in Ghana, Africa, a Southeast Missouri State University professor experienced drought and hunger, and he relied on the World Food Programme for his next meal.

There was a long stretch without rainfall, Francis Tayie recalled Thursday, and it had a devastating effect on the area.

"Everywhere dried up," he said. "There was no water, no green vegetables. No food could grow. It resulted in severe hunger in the whole region."

On March 5, Tayie, a professor of nutrition and dietetics, will share his childhood experiences during a hunger banquet at the university.

The event will educate guests on global and local hunger issues. It was organized by two senior dietetics students at Southeast, Rebekah Lawson and Rachel Buenemann.

"I feel like it's a topic a lot of people don't really talk about and they kind of ignore it," Lawson said. "Being a college student, it's easy to just live inside a little college bubble and not really open your eyes to what's all around you."

That changed for Lawson and Buenemann when they took a community nutrition course taught by Anne Marietta, an associate professor of nutrition and dietetics.

"She opened our eyes to what was out there," Lawson said.

Marietta told her students about a previous hunger banquet she had organized. Lawson and Buenemann asked whether they could organize one, too.

"I had never had a student do that before," said Marietta, who has been a professor at Southeast for 17 years. "It's quite amazing."

The community nutrition course requires 10 hours of volunteer work at a local agency, such as a food bank or pantry, that helps people who are hungry. Marietta said she's sometimes met resistance from students who don't want to volunteer.

"They're also required to do a journal about their experiences," Marietta said. "It's interesting, because at the end, most of them say, 'I'm glad you made me do this.'"

Students also will say they didn't realize how many local people rely on the food agencies.

"You hear about it internationally, but that it happens here is rather eye-opening," Buenemann said, adding though there are food banks and pantries, the issue of hunger is more complex.

"It's about nutrients and actually meeting the need of the community," she said.

Jamie Jones, a teacher in the Cape Girardeau School District, also will speak during the banquet about malnutrition in the classroom and how it affects education.

The banquet will be interactive and includes a dinner.

"I really want to get more people involved in trying to end hunger," Lawson said. "I know a lot of people do what they can, but I just think that educating people on it and telling them how they can help, they'll spread the word and get more people to help out."

The two-hour banquet will begin at 6 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom. Tickets are $6 each for nonstudents, and student entry is free. All proceeds will benefit the Southeast Missouri Food Bank and The Salvation Army. Tickets should be ordered in advance by emailing hungerbanquet2015@gmail.com or abmarietta@semo.edu.

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