Because of starvation, 1,000 people (around the world) died during dinner Wednesday night.

Eastern’s Haiti Connection hosted the annual Hunger Banquet to inform students of the realities of hunger.

Every day, nearly 24,000 people around the world die from hunger, according to the banquet’s program. To emphasize this, Jalal Williams, a senior art major, walked around with a scythe.

“I am a visual representation of the number of people who are dying,” he said.

Haiti Connection wants to raise campus awareness of issues that impact the world.

“We gather together and look at the reality of hunger for a little bit,” said Haiti Connection adviser Roy Lanham. “We begin to plant the seeds of how are we going to find solutions – real solutions.”

Attendees were divided into three groups of people: the first world, the second world and the third world.

Each world of people received a different meal.

The first world received a meal with salad, meat and a dessert. The second world received a meal of beans and rice. The third world only had rice.

“It represents the reality of the diet that the third world has to the relationship to the first world,” said Al Joyner, a retired business professor and emcee of the banquet.

Members of the lower worlds were not allowed to talk to the members of the higher worlds. If a first-world person acknowledges a third-world person, then the lower class could talk.

Students from all three worlds seemed to grasp the realities of having or not having food.

“We got food and didn’t have to get up,” said Witnee Cohan, a first-world citizen. “I feel a little guilty.”

Second-world citizen Ryan Gerrity actually took a bowl of beans from his table and offered it to third world citizens who sat on the floor. Even some first-world people were giving food to the third world.

“I have learned to never waste food,” Gerrity said. “I’m going to give it to others.”

The third-world people had to be hungrier, he said.

After dinner, there was a discussion on what it was like to be placed in the third world.

Lots of students said that they didn’t like being hungry.

“You think that anyone who is hungry likes it?” Joyner asked them.

While hunger awareness was a main purpose, donations were accepted at the door.

Eighty percent of the money went to the Haiti Connection, while the rest went to the Charleston food pantry.

About $900 was raised, Lanham said.

FACT BOX:

Did you Know?

Every year nearly 9 million people die from hunger. That equals 24,000 deaths each day. Children under the age of 5 account for three-fourths of these deaths. (www.freedonation.com)

Across the world, 852 million people are hungry. (www.bread.org)

In 2003, 36.3 million people, including 13 million children, in the U.S. did not have access to enough food. (www.bread.org)

It would take $13 billion a year to end world hunger for the world’s poorest citizens. Every year, $18 billion is spent on pet food in the United States and Europe. (www.freedonation.com)

Of the 6.74 billion people in today’s world, 1.2 billion live on less than a $1 per day. (www.bread.org)

– Compiled facts courtesy of the 2006 Hunger Banquet program