Hunger week events to raise awareness
Saturday, July 10, 2010 at 3:17PM By Alexis Austin
Potato Drop will help feed Rock Hill, surrounding areas
Winthrop's Cooperative Campus Ministries will be hosting Hunger Week 2010 “Facing the Realties of Hunger: Embracing Our Role in the Fight.”
They will have several events from April 12-15 to increase awareness about poverty in the community and surrounding areas.
Each year, the campus ministries organization comes up with a variety of activities to combat hunger. This year, one such activity is the potato drop.
On Tuesday, 40,000 lbs. of potatoes will be brought to Winthrop. They will be dropped and spread across Dinkins Student Center lawn.
“The potatoes were either not bought by grocery stores or the grocery stores had too many,” Laura Foster said. Foster is the program director for volunteer and community services.
Winthrop's Cooperative Campus Ministries only had to pay transportation costs to have the potatoes delivered to Winthrop.
Foster and the Center for Career and Civic Engagement teamed up with Winthrop’s Cooperative Campus Ministries, faculty from the peace studies minor and the Society of St. Andrews to collectively plan Hunger Week and the potato drop.
Local agencies that help people who are less fortunate will also be at the event to inform and tell people how they can help beat poverty in the community.
“We asked agencies to come and set up so people can know they are out there,” Foster said. “We have had a wonderful, wonderful response. It’s hard for them because they have volunteers who usually do all the work. They will have to leave their spot to come here, but we appreciate it.”
Each bag will contain 10-15 potatoes and a recipe. Students who attend the event will be able to help bag the potatoes. They will also receive a “potato passport” that will get stamped for each agency’s booth they visit.
“We thought this event would be educational and interactive,” said Foster’s assistant Jenna Roe. Roe has been responsible for contacting agencies to donate the bagged potatoes to.
“So far we have 35 agencies that we will be donating to,” she said.
Agencies in Rock Hill, Lancaster, Chester and Charlotte will receive bagged potatoes. The agencies will be responsible for picking up the potatoes.
Hunger Week 2010: Facing the realities of hunger: Embracing our role in the fight.
April 12
Hunger Week 2010 will start with the movie screening of “BANANAS!” at 8 p.m. in Tillman Auditorium.
Filmmaker Fredrik Gertten produced “BANANAS!,” which is a film that follows a lawyer and 12 workers whom have been affected by the use of pesticides by multinational corporations. Cultural event
April 13
The Potato Drop will be at 11 a.m. on the lawn of Dinkins Student Center.
The Society of St. Andrew’s Web site reveals that the purpose of a potato drop is to help educate participants about hunger and the amount of edible food that goes to waste in America. It’s also a “good advocacy tool” to help mobilize people into action. Cultural event
April 14
The cultural event Bread for the World Lecture and Letter Writing Campaign will be at 7 p.m. in Tillman Auditorium.
This is a nationwide movement urging decision-makers in the United States to end hunger in this country and around the world by changing policies, programs and conditions that allow hunger and poverty to persist. There will be tables set up for the letter writing campaign. Cultural event
April 15
Hunger Week will finish up with the Hunger Banquet at 7 p.m. in McBryde Hall.
Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for faculty, staff and community members. Proceeds from Hunger Week will be given to Haiti or another global need.
Cultural event
Compiled by Monica Kreber
