hunger banquet planning kit A Recipe for Social - Oxfam Canada

hunger banquet planning kit

A Recipe for Social Change

One-fifth of the world’s population will go to bed hungry tonight...

Oxfam Canada hungry4change: Hunger Banquet Planning Kit

Table of ContentsPage No.

I. Introduction

1

What is a Hunger Banquet?

1How it works

1

II. Planning Your Oxfam hungry4change Hunger Banquet

2Organiser’s timetable

2Outreach: Raise funds and awareness

3Set-up and Logistics

4Program Planning

4Some Extra Tips

5

III. Running Your Oxfam hungry4change Hunger Banquet

7Master of Ceremonies

7VIP Guest Relations

7Volunteer Coordinator

7The Sound System

7

IV. Additional ResourcesSample Oxfam Hunger Banquet Floor Plan

6Sample Oxfam Hunger Banquet Script

8Sample Characterizations

13

INTRODUCTION

What is a Hunger Banquet?

Oxfam Canada’s Hunger Banquet is a powerful event that brings to life the inequalities in our world and challenges us — as the more economically fortunate — to realize how our decisions affect others in the world. Few leave an Oxfam Hunger Banquet with full stomachs, but all leave filled with a greater understanding of the problems of global hunger and poverty and the motivation to do something about it.

The Oxfam Hunger Banquet is a dramatization of the inequitable distribution of food and resources in today’s world. Despite the fact that enough food is produced to feed twice the world’s population, more than 842 million people are chronically hungry.

The more you involve your audience and create an atmosphere of drama in this combination awareness and fundraising event, the more effective your Oxfam Hunger Banquet will be.

How it works:

Each guest draws a ticket randomly assigning them to the high-, middle-, or low-income tier as determined by World Development Report statistics, and is served a corresponding meal. The 15 percent in the high-income tier are served a sumptuous gourmet meal. The 25 percent in the middle-income tier eat a simple meal of rice and beans. The 60 percent in the low-income tier wait in line for small portions of rice and water.

An Oxfam Hunger Banquet works best with at least 40 people – the more guests, the more effective the demonstration.

Oxfam Hunger Banquets provide opportunities for educating your school, community group, or the public on hunger issues; raising funds to support Oxfam’s poverty fighting work; and recruiting new volunteers for your Oxfam group. Some schools hold Oxfam Hunger Banquets as part of orientation. As an organizer of the Oxfam Hunger Banquet, we hope this event empowers you to participate in social change, educate others, and help Oxfam partners who are finding solutions to end poverty and hunger.

Thank you for continuing this important tradition by organizing an Oxfam Hunger Banquet and donating your proceeds to Oxfam Canada. Please know that your efforts to raise awareness about world hunger and to motivate others to act will make a difference. Don’t forget to email us at [email protected] or call us at 1-800-GO-OXFAM for advice.

Hunger Banquet Planning Kit Page 1 of 28

PLANNING YOUR OXFAM HUNGER BANQUET

This section explains how to plan your Oxfam Hunger Banquet from beginning to end. We’ve included advice from our own and others’ experiences, as well as tips on the basics of good planning.

The first step is to recruit volunteers and divide them into committees for 1) outreach, 2) set-up and logistics and 3) planning the program. Each committee may consist of 2-4. Matching up volunteers’ interests and skills with committee responsibilities can make all the difference in the success of your event.

The importance of communication between these committees cannot be overstated. One person should serve as coordinator of all the activities to keep track of the big picture, keep the committees informed about the others’ activities and make sure the committees are on track with the timetable.

HARD TO SWALLOW• 842 million people are plagued by hunger• Nearly 3.7 million Canadians live below the poverty line• 1.2 billion people world wide – that’s 1 in 5 – live on less than $1 a day• More than 30,000 children under the age of 5 die every day due to hunger and other

preventable causes• More than 40 million people required emergency food aid in 2003• In Sub-Saharan Africa, 1 in 3 people are malnourished and about half live on less than

$1 a day

Organiser’s Timetable

5 to 8 Weeks Before

• Read this guide and visit www.oxfam.ca for more information. • Get a group of people together and divide up the work to plan the program, food,

publicity, and fundraising. • Set a date and reserve a place to hold your Oxfam Hunger Banquet.• Register your event with Oxfam Canada at www.oxfam.ca.• Select and invite a master of ceremonies and other speakers. Make a list of local

celebrities, musicians and public officials to invite. • Approach dining services or restaurants early for donations. • Print invitations and fliers: list endorsers, prominent participants and restaurants

donating food.

4 Weeks Before

• Send out invitations.• Post your event on e-mail and any other appropriate websites to which you have access.• Prepare press releases for the media. • Decide how you want to arrange your seating and decorate your venue.

3 Weeks Before

• Publicize! Publicize! Publicize!


• Design menus.• Purchase or make decorations. • Put up posters.• Send out press releases and follow up with phone calls.

1 to 2 Weeks Before

• Check all final details.• Review the suggested script in this guide or write your own.• Make more follow up calls to the media and continue publicity.

3 Days Before

• Prepare tickets for high-, middle-, and low-income groups. • Buy food, pick up donated food or go over plans with the chef.• Check on silverware, table settings, etc.• Make last minute press calls and continue publicity.

Day of the Oxfam Hunger Banquet

• Continue publicity.• Set up and decorate the room.• Set up a table with sign-in sheets and other information.• Orient volunteers.• Coordinate food for each income group.• Greet guests and make sure everyone gets a ticket.• Begin!

OUTREACH: RAISE FUNDS AND AWARENESS

Tell your friends and community about your Oxfam Hunger Banquet.

The Outreach Committee handles publicity and the media. It should have an attendance goal and generate as much publicity as possible.

The purpose of these publicity efforts is to get people to attend your Hunger Banquet so they can learn about poverty and the dire need to address it. Often, after an event, organisers think of missed opportunities.


Set Up and Logistics

This team directs all the groundwork for the Oxfam Hunger Banquet. The Set-Up and logistics Committee is responsible for fundraising and/or soliciting donations of food, decorations, venue, and audio-visual equipment. Committee members will also be responsible for recruiting volunteers to prepare for and staff the event. It will be easier on the day of your event if you assign volunteers to tasks (setting up the Oxfam Hunger Banquet, decorating, greeting guests, serving meals, cleaning up) in advance. The goal of this committee is to ensure that the Oxfam Hunger Banquet runs as smoothly as possible. Once you have conceived your Oxfam Hunger Banquet scheme and planned what you want to do, the next question is: Where is the money going to come from? Many groups run Hunger Banquets as a fundraiser for Oxfam Canada, so they try to spend as little as possible. Whether your event is a fundraiser or not, you will be working within a budget, so keeping expenses down will be important. Your budget will likely include: Decorations, Food, Publicity, Room Space, Sound System, and Speakers.

It is a good idea to make up your own list before planning your fundraising strategy. Once you have a list, you can start coming up with ways to cross off expenditures. Food can be your biggest expense, though through donations it can often cost nothing. If you have a dinning hall or cafeteria food service, try asking them to donate food. If you don’t have a food service, ask for donations from local restaurants and grocery stores. Let potential donors know that they will receive publicity through your printed program, press releases, and at the Oxfam Hunger Banquet itself. Seek out community stores, businesses, institutions, and individuals that might be able to assist you.

When talking with potential sponsors, emphasize the positive nature of your Oxfam Hunger Banquet. Many businesses and organizations have made it their policy to support social justice or public/community service efforts as a means of supporting the community and burnishing their public images. Tip: when seeking outside support, be sure to write a professional letter first and then follow-up immediately with a call and possibly a visit. The personal touch is almost always helpful.

Program Planning

The program planning committee is generally smaller than the other two, but it plays and important role. By overseeing the structure and design of the program, this committee has the task of making sure that your Oxfam Hunger Banquet meets its educational goals and effectively conveys its message. The idea is to create a dramatic, interactive event that enables participants to experience the extent of global poverty, the degree of inequality in the world, and the interconnectedness of the three income tiers. Your Oxfam Hunger Banquet should also demonstrate ways in which poor people are taking action to improve their lives. Sample income-level characterizations can be used to illustrate this point. From this fundamental interconnection stems the hope that through education and action, people can help to create a more just distribution of the world’s resources. People should leave with not only a greater understanding of poverty, but also specific actions they can take to help, such as making a financial contribution, joining an Oxfam group, or organizing a future event.

Your Oxfam Hunger Banquet should not lose its local distinctiveness. In other words, plan an event that will resonate with your audience – your school, place of worship or community group – by taking into account people’s experiences, values and environment. An Oxfam Hunger Banquet for 200 University students will look different from one in a church or elementary school.


You may want to prepare your audience with a discussion about hunger and poverty issues prior to the event. Some schools have used advisory groups to inform students about the nature of income distribution so they feel more comfortable and can better appreciate the flow of events. University Oxfam Hunger Banquets sometimes have participants fast the day before the event and/or distribute educational materials about poverty and hunger issues that will come up at the event. Try to gauge how well you think your audience would react to the message of the Oxfam Hunger Banquet as a surprise versus how much more they would be able to appreciate the issues if they were better informed.

The Program Committee also plans the order and content of the program, including how much time is allocated to each part. It also arranges for a master of ceremonies, other speakers, and VIP guests. Take a look at the sample program below, the sample MC script, and the sample income-level characterizations as a starting point to create a program that will suit your audience.

The move up/move down scenarios (contained in the Sample Oxfam Hunger Banquet Script) is at once engaging, entertaining, and educational. They demonstrate how forces beyond a person’s control can cause them to move from one tier to another – either up or down.

The sharing period, after people have finished their meal, is usually the most powerful part of the Oxfam Hunger Banquet, because it allows people to ask the hard questions. The MC may ask people in the first tier how thy feel with such an abundance of food, or find out what people in the third tier would propose to make the distribution of food more equal. You may also plan a time for reflection after the Oxfam Hunger Banquet to continue the discussion.

Creating as much drama as possible will help to engage your audience. Here are some ideas that have worked well with other groups:

• Have volunteers dress up as guards for first tier guests.• As people line up for food, announce that the females must go to the end of the line so

they will be served last. This will generate a lively discussion during the sharing period!• The income-level characterizations can be printed from our website as lottery tickets,

designate income tiers to add interest to your Oxfam Hunger Banquet. Each one describes the situation of a specific person in one of the three tiers. The MC can invite several people to read their income level characterizations.

Some Extra Tips:

You can charge admission or simply ask for donations. Invite faculty, students, parents, local businesses, and community organizations. Get groups to buy a block of tickets or co-sponsor the event to help defray expenses.

Ask local restaurants to donate food. Let contributors know that you will credit them in your printed materials (flyers, posters, programs, press releases) and through announcements at the event itself. Ask local businesses or groups to match what you raise through your event.

Set up a special table to distribute materials from Oxfam Canada.

As guests arrive, have them take a ticket out of a bowl or box - 15 percent will be high income, 25 percent middle income and 60 percent low-income. For example, if you expect 100 people, mark 15 tickets with high income, 25 with middle income and 60 with low income. If more people show unexpectedly, direct then to the low-income group.


RUNNING YOUR OXFAM HUNGER BANQUET

The Master of Ceremonies

The Master of Ceremonies must have a commanding presence to hold the audience’s attention for the duration of the Oxfam Hunger Banquet. This is the most demanding of all the responsibilities because it falls on the MC’s shoulders to get the audience to participate in the sharing session, which is one of the most important parts of the event. Along with being an effective public speaker, the MC should have a good grasp of the Oxfam Hunger Banquet concept and objectives. Some schools have asked drama students to be their MC; others have asked local newscasters or professors with good public speaking skills. Use the sample Oxfam Hunger Banquet script or write your own. The MC should be briefed on how and what will be served during the Banquet, as he/she will be expected to give directions concerning the food.

VIP Guest Relations


Your VIP guest list will be divided into two parts - celebrities and sponsors. Celebrities are people you invite to draw other people to your Oxfam Hunger Banquet (local politicians, the president of your school, a local band, or dance group) and/or to provide insight into social justice issues. Speakers need to be briefed on where to sit, their place in the program, when they will be called on to speak, and for how long. They should be introduced to the MC and other speakers.

Sponsors, whether individuals or heads of corporations, should be shown how their support contributed to the event and thanked, both in person and by the MC, as part of the program. If appropriate, they may even be given a bit of the spotlight.

Volunteer Coordinator

The Volunteer Coordinator picks up where the Set-Up and Logistics and Program Planning Committees left off. This person’s most important responsibilities are assigning people to specific tasks and coordinating multiple activities at once. Volunteers should arrive early for an orientation by the Volunteer Coordinator. They will put up the decorations, set up the room, and perhaps prepare the food. Others will greet the guests, have them add their names to the sign-in sheet and pick their ticket (or “lot in life”), serve the food, and clean up once the Oxfam Hunger Banquet is over. Due to the dramatic nature of the Oxfam Hunger Banquet, volunteers need to be fully versed in their roles. The volunteers serve not only a practical purpose, but they are also the first people to interact with participants as they arrive.

The Sound System

The sound system is an essential feature of the Oxfam Hunger Banquet to keep the audience involved. An effective sound system that can be heard over the crowd, particularly while people are finding their way to their appointed areas, will help your MC stay in control of the event. Look into the quality of the acoustics when you select the site for your Oxfam Hunger Banquet and arrange for at least two microphones (one for the MC and at least one cordless microphone for the audience during the sharing period).


5:00 - 6:00 Volunteers arrive. Volunteer coordinator gives orientation and assigns volunteers to specific tasks. Set up and decorate site.

6:00 - 6:15 Greet guests and have them draw tickets. Direct guests to their income groups.

6:15 - 6:20 Welcome address by host, which includes acknowledgement of sponsors and people who helped make the event possible.

6:20 - 6:35 MC reads Oxfam Hunger Banquet script describing the three income groups and move up/move down scenarios.

6:35 - 6:50 Meal is eaten. In background: music played to slide show.

6:50 - 7:15 MC asks for a moment of silence to reflect on feelings about the Oxfam Hunger Banquet. Sharing period: MC walks among audience and asks participants to talk about their experience. One or two other people circulate with cordless microphones to give other participants a chance to share.

7:00 - 7:15 Guest speaker or Oxfam video.

7:15 - 7:30 Conclusion: information on how participants can help. Suggestions include donating to Oxfam, going to the Oxfam website, joining the Oxfam eCommunity to take action on poverty, hunger, and injustice, or planning your own Oxfam event.

Sample Oxfam Hunger Banquet Program

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Sample Oxfam Hunger Banquet Script

We are here today to mark World Food Day, and to recognize the fact that 1.2 billion people live in poverty. 842 million of these people suffer from chronic hunger.

Every 2.9 seconds, a child dies from hunger and other preventable diseases….that’s 30,000 children a day.

One of the most common misconceptions about hunger is that it is about too many people and too little food. Not true. Our rich and bountiful planet produces enough to feed every woman, man and child on earth.

It’s about power. The roots of hunger lie in inequalities in access to education and resources. The results are illiteracy, poverty, war, and the inability of families to grow or buy food.

Today, you join us in the fight against hunger. The fact that you are here shows that you are concerned, that you want to learn more about our world of inequality and that you want to make a difference.

This banquet is a metaphor for how food and other resources are inequitably distributed in the world. As such, we can only touch upon the issues here today. We cannot recreate the many, complex ways poverty manifests itself. We will not have time to go into all the problems associated with lack of access to healthcare, education, and employment opportunities, and the realities of the day-to-day struggle for survival.

The one thing I would like you to remember is this: everyone on earth has the same basic needs, it is only our circumstances – where we live and the culture we are born into – that differ.

Some are born into relative prosperity and security, while millions – by no choice of their own – are born into poverty.

As each of us walked in the door here today, we chose our lot, at random. Look around, and you can see that equality and balance don’t exist here.

Please note: no one section of this room represents a single country. While North America is one of the wealthiest regions on earth, millions of North Americans do live in poverty. Stark inequalities prevail everywhere.

Now, I would like to introduce you to the three segments of this world. But do remember – it’s too easy to measure this world purely in economic terms. It is really about each person’s ability to achieve a sense of security and have access to resources.

NEAR HIGH-INCOME GROUP:


If you are sitting over here, you represent the 15% of the world’s population with a per capita income of $11,468 Canadian or more. You are fortunate enough to be able to afford a nutritious daily diet. As a group, you consume 70% of all the grain grown in the world, most of it in the form of grain-fed meat. Although some of you have the privilege of being able to go on trendy diets and count calories by choice, most of you exceed your daily requirement of calories. You face health problems such as heart disease and diabetes.

But most of you don’t worry about getting healthcare. You have access to the best medical care in the world. It’s a given that your children will attend school; the only uncertainty is how many years they will study after high school.

Access to credit? You turn down more offers than you can count. You and your family live in a comfortable and secure home. You own at least one car and probably two televisions. When you take your annual two-week vacation, you don’t worry about your job disappearing. You have access to everything you need and the security to enjoy it.

MOVE NEAR MIDDLE-INCOME GROUP:

If you are sitting here, you represent roughly 25% of the world’s population. You earn between $1,152 and $11,467 a year. The levels of access and security you enjoy vary greatly. You are the folks who live on the edge. For many, it would take losing only one harvest to drought, or a serious illness to throw you into poverty.

You probably own no land and may work as a day laborer, which pays a paltry amount – but it’s better than nothing. Your small income allows for some use of electricity and a few years of schooling for your children – especially if they are boys. Alternatively, you may have left your family to go work in the city. You hope that the money you earn from your less-than-minimum-wage job as domestic help or sweatshop worker will eventually allow you to move back home and make a better life for your family.

MOVE NEAR LOW-INCOME GROUP:

If you are sitting on the floor, you represent the majority of the world’s population – roughly 60 percent. Your average income is less than $1,151 a year – about $3 a day – although many of you earn much less.

Every day is a struggle to meet your family’s basic needs. Finding food, water, and shelter can consume your entire day. For many of you women, it would not be uncommon to have to walk 5 to 10 miles every day to get water, spend several more hours working in the fields, and of course take care of the children.

Many of you are frequently hungry. It is quite likely that you don’t get the minimum number of calories your hardworking life requires. Many of you are homeless or living in structures so flimsy that a hard rain or strong wind can cause a major catastrophe.

Even though education is the single most powerful weapon against poverty, school is a luxury few of your children will ever experience. Most girls don’t even bother to dream about school.

Adequate healthcare is out of the question for many of you in this group. For most of you, early death is all too familiar, with many mothers expecting to lose one or two children before they turn five.


If you are lucky enough to have paid work, you are probably a tenant farmer who must give your landowner 75% of your harvest. Or, you may get occasional work as a day laborer at a large plantation growing bananas, sugar, or coffee for export. You reap few benefits from these crops; you’d prefer to grow food your children could eat.

MOVE UP/DOWN SCENARIOS:

Now, I have some news that will affect several of you:

Like we’ve said, no one can choose the circumstances into which they are born. Some people have the good fortune to change their lives for the better, but for most the circumstances of life are determined by factors outside of their control.

[Now, turn to high-income group and ask the participant with the characterization card of “Fred Keller” to stand]

Fred, you are a middle manager at a large multinational coffee company. The world market price of coffee has reached record lows. Even though your company is paying less for the coffee, it is not going to lower the prices it charges North American consumers. Your company’s profit margins are about to escalate, and you will receive a hefty bonus at the end of the year. Congratulations! Maybe you’ll take a Caribbean vacation. While you’re deciding how to spend your bonus, please remain standing while I introduce two people you wouldn’t ordinarily get to meet.

[Ask the participant with the characterization card of “Joseph Mkomo” in the middle-income group to stand]

You have just been laid off from your job picking coffee beans, which allowed you to provide the basics for your family in Kenya. After the price of coffee dropped, your employer was forced to scale back its workforce because it could no longer afford to pay everyone. Please move to the low-income group.

[Ask the participant with the characterization card of “Lillian Kenyatta” in the low-income group to stand]

Please meet Lillian Kenyatta. You live in the same village as Joseph and you eke out a living selling maize and other vegetables from your garden, in the local market. Because Joseph and many of your other customers have been laid off from the nearby coffee plantation, they are buying less from you, and you can’t afford enough corn for your family. You will receive only a half-portion of rice today.

[Ask the participant with the characterization card of “Theresa Sanchez” to stand from the low-income group]

In an effort to improve her and Tomas’ circumstances Theresa has secured employment in a maquilladora sewing sports apparel for Canadian Universities. Theresa feels very lucky because it is one of the few factories that pays a decent wage and allows a union to protect the workers’ rights. Students and other citizens in the North helped the workers in the factory by passing ethical purchasing policies at their universities. This means that the universities will only purchase from factories that respect workers’ rights. Although Theresa is now able to earn a decent wage she feels the job comes with a high price. The maquilla is located 7 hours North


of Mexico City so she is unable to see her family. Theresa is trying to find Tomas a job but there aren’t many, but she has not lost hope.

[Turn back to address entire room]

This is just a small slice of life as it plays out each day around the globe.

Now we invite you to eat as the world eats.

Those of you in the high-income group will be served a nutritious meal of linguine with white wine cream sauce and bell peppers, broccoli and cauliflower salad and fruit juice. Those in the middle-income group will be eating rice, beans and tea. People in the low-income group will receive rice and water.

Enjoy your dinner.

Here are a few ways to get involved:

• Organize another Oxfam Hunger Banquet.

• Join Oxfam’s eCommunity and—with the click of a mouse—make a difference on key policy issues including unfair trade that affect millions of people throughout the world.

• Look for the Fair Trade label when purchasing coffee, tea, and other products in your supermarket. Buy from small and local farmers whenever possible.

• Volunteer at Oxfam and join our food and trade campaign. Together we can make a difference. Thank you for coming.

To make your Oxfam Hunger Banquet more interesting for your guests, we have developed characterizations. You’ll find a sampling here. Copy them onto different colored paper and use as the tickets that guests draw as they arrive. Use a different color for each income group.


CHARACTERIZATION CARDS


HIGH INCOMEMy name is John. My parents emigrated from Italy and raised my brothers and me in a tenement in Toronto. I worked my way through college and law school, taking on a variety of odd jobs, and then started my own law practice. I am now able not only to live in a fine home and travel extensively, but I’ve also been able to “give back” by paying for college for high school graduates with exceptional promise who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

HIGH INCOMEI am Verena. My father was the director of the Festspiel (internationally renowned music festival in Salzburg, Austria). I studied art in Venice, Italy. My father’s connections and financial support allow me to dedicate myself full-time to my artistic endeavours while living comfortably. This month, I am showing my work in a major exposition sponsored by the city.

HIGH INCOMEMy name is Korasi. Although I was a successful auto mechanic in Slovenia, I am not able to practice that profession in France. Since I came here three years ago, I have been working as a chef in an Italian restaurant. I commute over an hour each way to work from my small room in the suburbs, where rent is more affordable. I have a minimal amount of furniture and a small kitchen, but it is a good life for me as a single man.

HIGH INCOMEI am José. I am from Mexico. I have gone to private schools all my life and both my parents are professionals. When I was in high school, my class did volunteer work in the shantytowns surrounding my city. Now I am in college studying economics. I often think back on my volunteer time. When I finish school,I want to find a way to help people in the shantytowns.

HIGH INCOMEMy name is Ranjani. I am a 40-year-old woman living in India with my husband and two children. I am a doctor and my husband is a businessman. We live in a very large housewith many servants. My children attend one of India’s best private schools. They study very hard and hope to attain entrance into universities in Canada.

HIGH INCOMEI am Simcha. I own my own postcard business, selling to tourists who come to see the ancient city of Jerusalem. I stand on the sidewalk and sell my cards from 9 a.m. until midnight, when the last sightseers return to their hotels. When the economy in North America and Europe is weak, tourism declines and I don’t sell as much. I have had some difficult years, but I have always done well enough to feed myself. I am fortunate to own my own business.

HIGH INCOMEMy name is Claude. I live in Botswana, heading the Ministry of Finance. For a few years, I worked at the World Bank in Washington, DC, but I came back home to put my skills to use to improve my country’s economy. I don’t make as much as I did when I was working at the World Bank, but compared to many of my fellow citizens, I lead a very good and prosperous life.

HIGH INCOMEMy name is Shang. I am a 35-year-old Chinese woman living in the United States. Ever since I was a young girl I have always wanted to come to America where there is political freedom and economic opportunity. In China, I was fortunate enough to learn English fairly well and when I came to the United States I got a job as a clerk in a bank. In my spare time I volunteer with a non-profit organization that helps Chinese immigrants get settled here.


HIGH INCOMEMy name is Maria and I live in Sweden. I am a nurse at a local community clinic and I enjoy gardening in my spare time. Most of the vegetables that I eat come straight from my own garden. It takes a lot of time to grow my own food but I think it’s worth it, because then I know exactly what is in my food. My kids help me out in the garden too and I am happy to teach them skills that they will be able to use for the rest of their lives.

HIGH INCOMEMy name is Susan. I am a reporter in Vancouver but I grew up in Saskatchewan. I studied journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa and moved to the west coast after convocation. In my spare time, I volunteer for an organization called Farm Folk, City Folk whose mandate is to get people eating healthy, locally grown, organic food as much as possible. Coming from an agricultural province, this work is especially important to me.

HIGH INCOMEMy name is Bernabe Almazan and I live in Mexico city. I have taken over the family business from my father. It is an unusual business. I buy the recycled products from the middle men who buy from the people collecting in the garbage dump. I buy from the middle men because they save me time dealing with so many individual collectors. There are only two families who buy from the middle man and I take what measures I have to ensure that there is no competition, this keeps the price high.

HIGH INCOMEMy name is Jennifer and I live in Toronto. My parents are partners in a major law firm. I am following their career choice and have just passed the law exams. I will practice law at their firm and my salary combined with my husbands will be well over $300,000 per year.


MIDDLE INCOMEI am Jorge, and I come from the highlands of Guatemala where there is still a lot of violence even though the civil war has officially ended. When the military suspected that communists lived in my village, they burned many homes,including mine. I fled to the city, but living conditions there were terrible. I slept in huts made of cardboard and rusted car doors or anything I could find. A few years ago, six of my neighbours and I received a loan to start asmall carpentry workshop which has been very successful. Today we have more than 30 employees, and we are self-sufficient.

MIDDLE INCOMEI am Bareded. I am a farmer, and I live in southern Ethiopia with my family. I never had an ox until I received a loan of 330 birr ($160) from a local group. Before, it took 7-8 days to prepare my land for planting using hand tools. Now, when I team up with a neighbour who also has an ox, I can cultivate the same amount of land in 4-5 hours. This year, I will plant more land; I expect to grow enough food to feed my family and have a surplus so I can pay the first installment on my loan.

MIDDLE INCOMEMy Christian name is Lawrence. I live in Hong Kong in a public housing project with my parents and eight brothers and sisters. We live in a 12’ X 12’ room, and we have a refrigerator and a hot plate on a small adjoining balcony. Iam very fortunate to have received a scholarship to study law. I look forward to the day when I will earn a good salary and can move into an apartment of my own.

MIDDLE INCOMEMy name is Mercedes. I am 20 years old and I live with my parents and siblings in a small town outside of Quito, Ecuador. My father is a street vendor who sells a variety of things,including jewellery and clothing, to tourists. I help my father and sometimes I go off on my own to sell in another town. When lots of tourists come, we make good money, but when tourism is low, life is very difficult.

MIDDLE INCOMEMy name is Siu, and I am 50 years old. I live in Vietnam where I have been a fisherman my whole life. I have always worked very hard. I get up before the sun rises, load my small boat, and set off as daylight breaks. I am usually able to catch large amounts of fish to sell to villagers at the local fish market. I make just enough money to support my small family.

MIDDLE INCOMEMy name is Violet. I am a Jamaican and in the summers, I work in the tobacco fields in Ontario. The farmer I work for is reallynice. Unlike some of the other farmers, he allows visitors on to his property, so my friends who work on neighbouring farms, can come to see me in the evening. Usually, I make enough in the work I do during the Canadian growing season to support my family for the rest of the year. This year will be harder because my family’s house was destroyed in Hurricane Ivan. Now, most of the money I make will go toward reconstruction.

MIDDLE INCOMEMy name is Andreis. I am a farmer in Elandskloof, South Africa. Previously apartheid laws forced everyone in my community to leave their homes. With the help of the Surplus People’s Project, we were able to reclaim our land and start rebuilding our community. We are dealing with many difficult challenges, but we look forward to a better future.

MIDDLE INCOMEMy name is Rusha, and I live in Mozambique. Despite legal challenges and a 17-year civil war, I now own my first piece of land. I was able to do this with the help of the General Union of Cooperatives. Having my own land also gives me more confidence and security.



MIDDLE INCOMEI am Lorna. I am eleven years old and in sixth grade at Caswell school in Saskatoon. I live with my mom. My mom goes to school too. She is going to be a nurse. I want to be a nurse too when I grow up. My mom gets loans from the government to go to school, but it’s not enough money and it costs her a lot to go to school. She makes sure that we always have enough to eat though. My favorite food is spaghetti and we eat that every Thursday.

MIDDLE INCOMEMy name is Dully. I live with my family in India. Before my mother joined a women’s group, we had no money to buy medicine when my brothers and I would get sick. My mother and her friends talked about problems with their husbands: they wouldn’t help out at home, they would spend all their money on themselves, and sometimes they would be them. But the women were very brave, and they formed the women’s group to raise and sell fish. They earn their own income and the village men’s group cooperates with them. Sometimes my father even helps cook dinner.

MIDDLE INCOMEMy name is Sophea. I am 21 years old. I left Saigon to live with a sponsor in North America, but my dreams of a new life quickly turned into a nightmare as I realized that my sponsor had no intention of taking me in. Alone in a strange country, I got caught up with the wrong crowd. I began selling drugs because I needed money. I was arrested and sent to jail for six months. I learned English in prison, and when I got out, I went to a local shelter for counselling. I now have a full-time job, but I still have to sleep in a night shelter. Someday, I hope to have my own apartment.

MIDDLE INCOMEMy name is Francisco. I am a 40-year-old man from Mexico. I own a small business selling flowers. I went to school through fifth grade and then dropped out because my family could not afford it. One of my childhood friends who was able to go to college joined the flower industry and began to grow his own flowers. He helped me start my business, and I help him sell his flowers. Although we help each other out, life is difficult because our companies are small and there is a lot of competition out there.

MIDDLE INCOMEI am Rumberto. I run a successful Casa Particular (Bed and Breakfast) out of my home in Bayamo, Cuba, lodging and feeding tourists from all over the world. Although I am paid in American dollars, which are worth a lot here, I pay heavy taxes on what I earn. However, it is still enough for my family and me to get by and eat well. My son and daughter are grown now and they both attend University in Havana. He studies medicine and she is studying agriculture.

MIDDLE INCOMEMy name is Jorge and I am a 48-year-old farmer from Mexico. For over six months every year, I leave my family and come to work in a greenhouse in Southern Ontario. I get paid $7 an hour, but the government takes about a third of my wages for taxes and employment insurance premiums. I don’t think it’s fair that I should have to pay these premiums when I am not allowed to collect benefits, but I don’t want to complain. I feel lucky to be able to come to Canada. Many of my neighbours in Mexico have no job….at least my family can afford to eat because of the work I do here.



LOW INCOMEMy name is Gitef and I live in Ethiopia’s Tigray province. Since my husband was killed in the Eritrian-Ethiopian conflict several years ago, I have supported my four children on my own. Through a program for women-headedhouseholds funded by Oxfam Canada, I have built a chicken coup and goat house to raise my own livestock. I have also started to grow vegetables. All of this allows me to not travel in search of work. I have also been able to buyschool clothes and supplies for my children for the first time this year.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Hugo. My brother and I sell items from a Mexico City dump at flea markets in the city. I don’t make a lot of money, but I’m doing a lot better than the people who live in the dump. I feel bad for them, but the more I pay them, the less I have to live on.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Miguel and I live in the Dominican Republic. I am a sugar farmer working on a small plantation. Every day, I work 11 hours. I make very little money, but the work is steady. My dream is someday to own my own farm, but I never seem to be able to save enough money.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Robert Pelletier. I live in Northern Saskatchewan. I am a trapper up here. I catch otter, seals and other animals. I sell the fur and meat (and save a little bit to eat myself). I live on my own, so my income is adequate to meet my needs, but I don’t have a lot of extras.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Sekayi and I am a 19-year-old farmer in Zimbabwe. For many years I struggled just to survive and feed my family during the drought. The last couple of years, things have been better. Through OxfamCanada’s Emergency Seeds program, I was given seeds that were most adequate to grow in this area. The vegetables that I have grown are also very rich in nutrients so they are good for my sister and brother-in-law who are very sick with AIDS. They need good food to keep living.

LOW INCOME I am Joseph. I have been working at my job picking coffee beans for many years. It provides me with adequate income to feed myself and my family. I am proud of the workthat I do because I know that people all over the world enjoy the product of my labour.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Ismatullah. I am 16 years old and work as a shopkeeper in the village of Qadis in Afghanistan. Prospects for my three-month-old kiosk don’t look good. Of the 300 shops that used to be open in the town, only twenty are still in business. It is hard to see how I’m goingto sell the packs of pasta and bars of Raana soap.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Zabaar Gul. I live in war-torn Afghanistan with my two sons and two daughters. Like over 100 families, I left ourvillage and failed field and have made my home in a cave near the Oxfam food distribution centre. I left my Kuzak village ayear ago as we had nothing to eat, but life in the caves has been just as bleak. My husband left to earn money in Iran. He broke his arm and is stuck there, unable to work and unable to return. My seven-year-old daughter, Zebba, goes to a nearby village to beg. I am not sure how long we can last without food.


LOW INCOMEMy name is Roberto. I am a 40-year-old Colombian man and I came to America because of the political oppression in my native country. When I came, I spoke very little English, and I lost all my important papers when I was forced to flee on foot. Someone on the street told me to come to Boston because of the great economic opportunities. Through a local shelter, I have been able to receive food, medical care, and ESL (English as a Second Language) courses; all of these have helped me regain my strength and the will to live after years of living in poverty. I still do not have work, but every day I know I’m getting closer

LOW INCOMEMy name is Raymond. I am 54 years old, and I am disabled. I had an accident at work, and I lost the use of my hands, which greatly affected me because I have always been a laborer. After that, I couldn’t get work and I got so depressed I just drank. My wife told me to quit or get out. I chose life on the street because I couldn’t quit drinking. I’m sober now, I go to AA meetings and everything; I’m even getting my GED. But the fact remains that no one wants to hire me. My wife doesn’t want me back, so I’ll probably stay in shelters unless a miracle happens.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Sekayi and I am a 19-year-old farmer in Zimbabwe. For many years I struggled just to survive and feed my family during year after year of drought. The last couple of years, things have been better. Through Oxfam Canada’s Emergency Seeds program, I was given seeds that were most adequate to grow in this area. The vegetables that I have grown are also very rich in nutrients so they are good for my sister and brother-in-law who are very sick with AIDS. They need good food to keep living.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Zabaar Gul. I live in war-torn Afghanistan with my two sons and two daughters. Like over 100 families, I left our village and failed field and have made my home in a cave near the Oxfam food distribution centre. I left my Kuzak village a year ago as we had nothing to eat, but life in the caves has been just as bleak. My husband left to earn money in Iran. He broke his arm and is stuck there, unable to work and unable to return. My seven-year-old daughter, Zebba, goes to a nearby village to beg. I am not sure how long we can last without food.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Ismatullah. I am 16 years old and work as a shopkeeper in the village of Qadis in Afghanistan. Prospects for my three-month-old kiosk don’t look good. Of the 300 shops that used to be open in the town, only twenty are still in business. It is hard to see how I’m going to sell the packs of pasta and bars of Raana soap.

LOW INCOMEI am Ravi. I belong to an indigenous group in Gujarat, in western India. Like most people in this area, I work for the government as a picker. I am guaranteed protected status by the government but the reality is that these laws are not being enforced and discrimination is rampant. Last year, I attended a rally to press the government for higher wages and benefits. We were successful, and my wages were doubled.


LOW INCOMEMy name is Jean. I belong to an Oxfam-funded peasant organization that works with poor farmers in Haiti. I am learning how to take care of the soil so it doesn’t get washed away and learning how to grow better crops. It is not easy because we have very poor soil and few tools to work with, and fertilizer is too expensive. But I am grateful to be getting some help. Perhaps things will be better for my children.

LOW INCOMEI am Liang. I live in northern Vietnam where the average income in the countryside is less than $200 per year. I have no land, so I work as a day labourer and I earn a small income. We have barely enough to eat and I am able to provide only a rudimentary education for my son. I need my daughter to help me out at home.

LOW INCOMEI am Sana, a 40-year-old Bangladeshi woman. In this rural area, conservative religious laws and cultural prejudices limit opportunities for women. A few years ago, I joined a women’s group. They helped us start small businesses, like rice-husking, brick-making, and raising dairy cows. They also worked with our community to promote women’s rights. Now my children are much healthier, and my husband helps me out at home.

LOW INCOMEI am Xiao, a 30-year-old Cambodian woman taking care of my husband who is suffering from tuberculosis. Most of my land has been sold off to buy medicine, and the government provides no health services. We are able to produce one crop of rice on the little land we have left, but during the dry season we have to borrow rice from my neighbours.

LOW INCOMEI am Pancho, a young Filipino fisherman from a long line of fishermen. My family has always made a decent living in the fishing business, but my income has gone down as the fish stock has been overexploited. My family now gets barely enough to eat.

LOW INCOMEI am Enrique, a 40-year-old man. When the civil war ended in my home country, Guatemala, I returned with nearly 130 other families after living in Mexican refugee camps for many years. We received very little government assistance, but we got some help from an Oxfam-funded group to buy some cows so our children could have milk. It has been difficult, but we are determined to make a new start.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Deng. I live in Vietnam on a very small farm. During times of drought, I must survive on loans from local moneylenders who charge 30 to 40 percent interest per month.

LOW INCOMEI am Julia. My family and I live in Nicaragua, where I am part of the 70 percent of the population that is unable to meet basic human needs. I make only $430 per year, and my land, which I use to raise cattle and grow crops, now lays idle due to government policies which have decreased small farmers’ access to resources necessary to work the land. My family now is barely surviving.


LOW INCOMEMy name is Luisa, and I live in Cashiriari, Peru. I am a member of the Machiguenga people who have hunted and fished around the Urubamba River for thousands of years. The land around my community is being exploited by an oil company, which has cut down trees and polluted the water. I live off of the river and the forest, and I cannot survive if they are destroyed.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Ngongo. I am a 30-year-old Senegalese woman. I have been seeking a divorce from my husband who beats me. Laws and customs discriminate against women in my country, so it is very hard to find work to support a family. I am getting help from APROFES, a local group which gives women credit to start small businesses and promotes fair treatment of women.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Chang. I am a 50-year-old Cambodian man. I have had to move many times because of the civil war that has been going on in my country for years and years. I live on property that I have no official title to. The land around my house is riddled with land mines that prevent me from farming it.

LOW INCOMEI am Michelle, a 50-year-old Haitian woman. My livelihood depends on sheep and goat rearing, which provides just enough for my family to survive. There are no jobs here, so my husband must seek work elsewhere; he is away most of the time. Even so, he makes very little money, and my children and I miss him.

LOW INCOMEI am Julio, a small farmer in El Salvador. For many years I grew coffee and sold it to a wealthy middleman who paid me low prices and then sold it for a handsome profit. Recently I joined a cooperative. The cooperative buys our beans at fair prices, processes them, and sells them to buyers in the United States and Europe. By working together, we are not being exploited and we are doing much better.

LOW INCOMEI am Anna Pedro, and I live in Mozambique. My village has suffered from both man-made and natural disasters, including a recently-ended civil war in my country and a cholera epidemic that has killed many people. My neighbours and I joined together to deal with the cholera problem by building a fence around a new well drilled by the Mozambican provincial water service.

LOW INCOMEI am Elizabeth. Years ago, my father grew corn, yams and mung beans on our land in the Philippines. I always thought that one day my children would do the same. Now our land is a part of a large sugar plantation and we cut cane for 35 cents a day. My young son works in the field, but he is very weak because he doesn’t get enough to eat. I just pray he’ll survive.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Lutfar. I live on the coast of Bangladesh with my family. We often have floods and sometimes we have cyclones. One year thousands of people were killed by a tidal wave. After that, Oxfam funded the construction of a cyclone shelter built by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee. The next time a cyclone hits, we have a safe place to go. For now, we use the cyclone shelter as a school and a community gathering place.


LOW INCOMEMy name is Apurba. Being a girl in Bangladesh means that I cannot go to school; only my brother is allowed to go to school. I must stay at home and cook and help my mother take care of my brother. If my mother or I go out of the house, we cannot go without my father or my brother. I would give anything to be able to go to school.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Farida. Our forests in India have nearly disappeared, and our people have become nomadic, wandering the earth in search of water. Our men are always on the lookout for jobs, which are scarce. Sometimes they must travel far to find them. The Oxfam America program here really helped us by building reservoirs that keep the rain water, so we can stay. We are now growing vegetables. You can’t imagine what that means to us women, and to our community.

LOW INCOMEI am Miguel from the Dominican Republic. I am a sugar farmer working on a small plantation. Every day I work for 11 hours. I make very little money but the work is steady. My dream is to someday own my own farm, but I never seem to be able to save any money for my future.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Fauzia, and I live in Bangladesh. I work very hard in the fields, sometimes for as many as 14 hours a day, and then I have to cook dinner for my husband and my son. I joined a revolving loan group and received a small loan to buy a cow. Now I have milk for my son, and I sell the rest. It’s only a little, but my son is healthier and soon I will be able to take out another loan.

LOW INCOMEI am Cipriano. I live in the Peruvian Andes where the climate is very harsh. At an altitude of 14,000 feet, the air is thin, the sun is strong and the wind is very powerful. I have five llamas and I grow potatoes on a terraced, hillside plot. My llamas are much healthier now because I got help from the Chuyma Aru Association, an Oxfam America partner. They gave me better tools to dig irrigation channels to water the pasture for my llamas. They also taught me traditional ways to make fabric from the llamas’ wool and to sew my own clothes.

LOW INCOMEI am Rebecca. Originally, my husband and children and I lived in Sudan. We grew our own food which provided everyone in our village enough food to eat. When the civil war forced us to flee to Ethiopia, we lived in a refugee camp. Our youngest baby died along the way. The camp fell apart when the Ethiopian government collapsed, so we went back to Sudan. Somehow we were able to avoid the bombs and survive by eating wild plants. Finally we came across a camp for displaced people. Life is not easy here, but it is safe. I pray for the day when the war is over, so we can return home and live in peace.


LOW INCOMEMy name is Ramon. I live in the highlands of Bolivia. For years, we indigenous people were made to feel inferior to other people in Bolivia, but now, thanks to groups like ISALP, an Oxfam America partner, we are reviving our traditional culture and building pride in our heritage. ISALP is also helping us build irrigation channels so we can grow more food and our llamas and alpacas, which we rely on for food and wool, will be healthier.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Miguel. I am a farmworker in Florida. I typically work 14 hours in the fields with only a half-hour break for below minimum wage. I live in company-owned housing, paying for a place to live that does not even have a stove or a bed. I am organizing with other farmworkers to try to improve work conditions and increase my meager salary, but I fear losing my job since my employer does not want farmworkers to unionize.

LOW INCOMEI am Mara, a 25-year-old garment worker in Cambodia. I moved to Phnom Penh from my small village to find work after my father died. My mother and my six brothers and sisters rely on my income to survive. At the factory I must reach my target of 120 trousers per hour if I want to get my monthly incentive bonus of $5/month. I would like to have kids someday, but I don’t make enough money to support another person, and besides, I would get fired from the factory as soon as they found out I was pregnant.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Halima and I am living in a refugee camp in Darfur, Sudan. We fled the violence and came by donkey to get here two weeks ago. We have four children. Our whole village is now empty. We were the last to leave. We are safe here. We can't go home as we are scared we will be attacked again. Since we arrived there has been no news of home, but maybe because there is no one left there. I had a hut made of straw, that was a nice home. I also had two guest rooms on my compound for when friends or family would come to stay. I had a cow and a calf, and a store-room full of sorghum. All that has gone now and I have nothing.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Louna and I live in Gonaive, Haiti. My husband was killed during Hurricane Jeanne last month. My six children and I, survived by climbing on a rooftop. At one point there were eighty of us up there, we could see many people struggling to stay alive and not drown…there were many children crying and women screaming. It was a nightmare. I lost my house and all my belongings, we only have the clothes that we are wearing. We are hungry and … I have nothing to feed the children.

LOW INCOMEMy name is Ahmad. I live in a camp on the Iraq-Syria border. Until a few weeks ago, my family lived near a headquarters of the security service. The Americans tried bombing it twice, 7 missiles hit it, and when this started again for the second time we got really scared. We've lived through so much - the war with Iran in the 80s, the first Gulf war, now this war. We're very afraid - not so much for us but for our children. At least we are safer at this camp, and we have access to some food and clean drinking water.


LOW INCOMEMy name is Inés and I work on a banana plantation in Panama. I am a mother of seven children and it has been really difficult for me to raise them because of my work. Sometimes I didn't have anyone to leave my children with; sometimes I had to leave them shut in a room. If I didn't do that they could have sacked me. There were times when the children would get sick and I would be at work crying. At times I would ask permission to go and look after them. They would give me permission, but when it got to the end of the week and I went for my wages I didn't have enough money.

LOW INCOMEI am Maria, and I live in Zimbabwe, where the land is very arid. I can remember many years when the rains did not come and our crops withered and died. Recently, a local group received a grant from Oxfam to build a dam on the river so we will have clean water year-round. I look forward to the day when I can have confidence that our crops will grow and my family will eat well.

CHARACTERIZATION CARDS MENTIONED IN SCRIPT

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HIGH INCOMEI am Fred Keller and I am a middle manager at a large US-based coffee company. I have worked hard to get where I am. I worked my way through university studying commerce and now it is finally starting to pay off. I just bought a house last spring and I am engaged to be married next summer. **

MIDDLE INCOMEI am Joseph Mkomo. I have been working at my job picking coffee beans for many years. It provides me with adequate income to feed myself and my family. I am proud of the work that I do because I know that people all over the world enjoy the product of my labour. **

LOW INCOMEMy name is Lillian Kenyatta. I live in the same village as Joseph and I make a living selling maize and other vegetables from my garden in the local market. **

LOW INCOMEMy name is Theresa Sanchez. In an effort to improve her and Tomas’ circumstances I have secured employment in a maquilladora sewing sports apparel for Canadian Universities. I feels very lucky because it is one of the few factories that pays a decent wage and allows a union to protect the workers’ rights. Although I am now able to earn a decent wage my job comes with a high price. The maquilla is located 7 hours North of Mexico City so I am unable to see my family. I am trying to find Tomas a job but there aren’t many, but I have not lost hope.**

GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!!!

For help in organizing a hungry4change Hunger Banquetcontact the National Fundraising Office

Email [email protected] 1-800-GO-OXFAM

www.oxfam.ca


hunger banquet planning kit A Recipe for Social - Oxfam Canada

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