Meredith Holds Its First Ever Hunger Week

Photo by Olivia Slack

From March 28 through April 2, Meredith will hold its first ever Hunger Week. Throughout the week, a basic needs fair, a fundraising night, a hunger banquet, a film festival and more will be held. According to Meredith’s website, Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week is a “nationwide event where people across the United States work together in their own communities to draw attention to a common issue: homelessness and food insecurity.” Hunger Week is being hosted through the “Angels Are Aware Campaign” and by graduates in the nutrition program.

The Hunger Banquet on March 31 will begin with open mic poetry followed by a presentation by guest speaker Joseph Ewoodzie, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Davidson College and author of Getting Something to Eat in Jackson. Ewoodzie's book explores the intersection of race and class in the lives of African Americans in the urban South via food, what people eat and how they eat it. A link to reserve tickets will be made available in the coming weeks.

According to Valeriia Litvinova, a Master of Science in Nutrition student at Meredith, “The Banquet will focus on how ‘foodways’ — food availability and consumption — vary greatly between socio-economic classes to understand factors that shape food choice, many of which are outside of our control.”

“Participants [at the banquet] will be randomly assigned a ‘socio-economic status’ and become a part of an engaging narrative leading to a meaningful path forward to create a culture of care,” Litvinova said.

Students will be able to purchase Ewoodzie’s book as well as Meredith’s new Community Cookbook: A Meal Together during the event. Anyone interested in sharing their poetry during the event can sign up via the poetry submission form. There is also an interest form for the outdoor film festival happening Friday, April 1. A full tentative schedule can be found on the Hunger Week website. The website also reminds students that over 40% of Meredith students are food insecure and 18% may go hungry, and it encourages members of the community to “help [them] fix this.”

By Evelyn Summers, Staff Writer