Ripon College Days

The Community Service Coalition and the AmeriCorps VISTA will try to show Ripon students and community members how lucky they really are for warm food and a cold drink.

Wednesday, Feb. 23, the groups are co-sponsoring the first Empty Bowls Hunger Banquet from 5-7 p.m. in Great Hall. The cost is $5 at the door or one meal for those on the Sodexho meal plan.

"In the original Empty Bowls project, everyone buys a ticket, gets an empty bowl, and gets a simple soup," says AmeriCorps VISTA, Dana Olson.

"They leave the banquet hungry," elaborates fellow AmeriCorps VISTA Kate Hersey.

However, the coordinators have decided to do things a bit differently.

While organizers aren't willing to reveal too much information about the actual meal component of the Hunger Banquet, they are sharing that not everyone's experience will be the same, to signify the stratus among various social classes when it comes to buying and eating food.

"The Hunger Banquet is a meal to raise awareness about hunger in a physical way for the Ripon College Community," says Program Coordinator for Community Service Coalition Jessica Joanis.

It is this key physical element which organizers feel will be the most powerful aspect of the banquet.

In addition to the meal there will be speakers, including one from the food pantry, as well as the silent auction of donated ceramic bowls.

The call for donation of handmade pottery bowls will add a twist to the banquet.

"It's a way that students in a ceramics class or who do it on their own can contribute to the overall effect," explains Olson.

Money raised from the auction, as well as that made from tickets, is going directly to the local food pantry and to the Habitat for Humanity trip to New Orleans over spring break.

CSC and the AmeriCorps VISTAs hope the Hunger Banquet will have a profound impact and aid hunger prevention efforts in Ripon.

"In our community, 6.22 percent of the population lives in poverty. That translates to 601 people in Ripon living in poverty," Hersey says.

She adds, "You don't see those people everyday, but they're here."

Besides attending the Hunger Banquet, there are various other ways Ripon students and community members can donate their time and effort to curbing the hunger problem. Some examples include helping with local Habitat for Humanity projects, donating to the food pantry and even giving business to the thrift store.

"The thrift store is where [the food pantry] gets their proceeds to give donations," Hersey says.

For Ripon students who attend, it's an opportunity to realize how fortunate they are. "We're lucky to be able to go to the commons and gorge ourselves," says Hersey.

"It's easy to isolate ourselves. This is a way to become aware," Olson states.

While the goal for the Hunger Banquet is eighty participants, there are hopes for something much more meaningful than that, according to Hersey.

"It has the potential to be a life changing experience and really open [people's] eyes to the world around them."

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