This week students can participate in activities to help raise money and food for the hungry in the Eau Claire community.
Hunger Awareness Week will help raise awareness about the hunger problem nationally as well as here in Eau Claire, assistant director of housing Jodi Thesing-Ritter said.
Junior Courtney Reynolds, who serves on the committee organizing the event, said the newest event this year is the Band Jam. The West African Drumming Society, Ladder El and Innocent Men and Girls Night Out – two UW-Eau Claire a cappella groups – will be performing from 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday on the Campus Mall.
| Hunger Awareness Week Activities
Wednesday: Thursday: Friday: Food collection, various locations |
In conjunction with Band Jam, Reynolds said Urban Jonsson, United Nations Children Fund regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa, is speaking at the World Food Day Teleconference, which is scheduled to take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday in Davies Theatre.
This year’s theme, “Collaboration or Calamity: Africa in Peril” will address the predicament of sub-Saharan Africa and what can be done to help.
There will be bins throughout campus and in all residence halls to collect non-perishable food items, Reynolds said. In addition, residence hall residents can compete in the can sculpture contest Wednesday in front of Towers Hall.
Last year the sculpture contest was a huge success, Thesing-Ritter said. Organizers collected a vanload of food.
This year they are hoping for even more participation in the event.
All donations will go to UNICEF and the local chapter of Feed My People Food Bank.
People need to be aware that hunger is also a political problem, Reynolds said.
“It’s not that we don’t have enough food, it’s that it isn’t distributed evenly,” she said. There are 33 million people in the United States who are hungry, she said, and 13 million of those, or one in every household, are children.
People should be aware that hunger exists in Eau Claire and that they can help alleviate the problem, Reynolds said.
Free T-shirts are available at the Service Center for people to wear around campus this week to help raise awareness, she said.
Students also can participate by using the “Change Hunger” cans located at all residence hall front desks and Sodexho cash registers.
The week will conclude with a “Campus Food Collection” on Friday from 9 a.m. to noon.
