UIndy students sacrifice their appetites; raise funds for children around the world
By Staci Reafsynder
STAFF WRITER
Can a college student go without eating all day? Some cannot. But millions of people around the world, not by choice, go longer than a day without eating. The 30 Hour Famine at the University of Indianapolis raised funds for starving children around the world on April 11-12.
Compassionate Acts, the student organization that held the 30 Hour Famine, is based on Acts 20:35, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
On the morning of April 11, about 40 people joined in a hunger strike that lasted until 1 p.m. the next day. To keep their minds off food, they engaged in many activities and volunteered at food banks, shelters and a Salvation Army.
World Vision is head of the 30 Hour Famine and cares for kids suffering from malnutrition and hunger related problems in more than 100 countries.
According to the Web site, Building a Better World for Children (worldvision.org), 300 million people through- out the world suffer from hunger, 825 million in the world are malnourished and 815 million of those are in developing countries where one in 10 children dies before his/her fifth birthday. In the United States alone, 36.3 million people, including 13 million children or approximately one in 10 households throughout the U.S., live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger.
Laura Steed, founder and head of Compassionate Acts, said she has done the 30 Hour Famine in the past and wanted to see if it could be done on a college campus.
“I did a little research to see if it was a possibility to do it [30 Hour Famine] on a college campus, and I found out a lot of people have done it on college campuses,” Steed said. “So I thought, why not try to do that as one of the service projects and make it the biggest event of the year for Compassionate Acts.”
A three-person committee of Taylor Owings, Shelly Stephens and Steed planned the event with help from the Ecumenical News International (ENI) office. Owings also had participated in the 30 Hour Famine when he was in high school, and thought it would be a good idea. He said that everyone on the committee had participated in the 30 Hour Famine before and bounced ideas off of each other to come up with a plan.
“Each of us did our fair share and put together a pretty good event,” Owings said.
Cindy Tyree, office manager of Ecumenical Interfaith Programs, printed flyers to advertise the event. A table also was set up outside of the Schwitzer Dinning Hall a couple months prior to advertise.
A week before the 30 Hour Famine, another table was set up to collect money.
On the day of the famine, 40 people began their hunger strike at 7 a.m., continuing through to the next day at 1 p.m. The group met for a short devotional and education period before they split up into three groups that each went to a service project.
Returning from the service projects, the fasters played a game that had to do with hunger and made signs with information about hunger. They also heard guest speaker Heather Foltz, who works for the Horizon House, a day shelter for the homeless.
“She spoke to us and connected the idea of the call that we have as Christians and the gospel message to love and serve our neighbors near and far,” Steed said. “As well as telling us [about] her personal calling to serve the homeless here in Indianapolis.”
The first day, Compassionate Acts also held a candlelight service to pray for those who are in need. That night, they slept on cardboard boxes, experiencing what it would be like to spend the night in a homeless shelter.
On the second day, prayer stations were set up to inform group members about hunger. They also volunteered at Gleaners Food Bank. The fast broke with a simple meal of a sandwich and some fruit, what a homeless person would get if he or she had missed the main meal at a homeless shelter, said Steed.
Service projects throughout Indianapolis,” Steed said. “[It was] also a time that we could come together as well as support each other while we fasted. Some of the individuals had not fasted before, so the 30 hours could have been a struggle for them, but we became our own community and fasted together.”
On the morning of April 14, signs citing hunger statistics were put around Smith Mall.
“I thought [everything] went excellent. Each time you do the 30 Hour Famine, you take something else out of it,” Owings said. “It’s a humbling experience.”
Compassionate Acts raised over $2,000 that will go to World Vision to help starving people around the world.
