Hunger Banquet

For the student leaders of Students Against Hunger and Homelessness at FGCU:

You have money for this event, it is your decision if you want to cater the event (it is okay to Aramark now, they signed the agreement to pay farmworkers a penny more per pound of tomatoes picked), or to cook yourselves like at the last hunger banquet. Both ways worked, and both come with their own headaches. If catering is going to be too costly, then you can ask student government for help (I suggest talking to Marco). You have materials to pass out, and you can always go to Oxfam America to get more. They also change up the speech once in a while, so you may want to go get the updated version. You cannot fundraise at the event, even to collect cans, otherwise Student Government will not give you money for next year for the event.

You need to book the Student Union ballroom as soon as possible, your first day back if you can, because it goes soon. Marie (or whoever is there that year) in Campus Reservations will help you with setting up the floor-plan. They should still have the floor-plan from last year in the system, so just make sure to tell them of any changes you may want. The day of the event, the school will set up the room, so all you have to worry about is everything else 

Icebreaker: One year we had guests build their own house, then a “natural disaster” came and destroyed it. The other years we just had videos playing. You can do whatever you want.

Speech: Make sure that you get people who are actually good at talking, no one wants to listen to someone who stutters and stumbles or doesn’t speak loud enough. At the end you can have an open forum where people can come up and talk about hunger issues if they want. Or you can bring in people from the outside world to talk.

Tickets: Get a couple volunteers to pass out the tickets BEFORE people enter the room (they did a poor job of this last year), and tell them to hand it out in the correct amounts, 3:2:1 I think.

Timing is everything: The year before last we had to stall by playing videos because we went through the speech quicker than we thought, and the food hadn’t arrived yet. You want to at least seem like you know what you are doing!

Everyone knows this is my least favorite event, but people really enjoy it, and they get a free meal. So it is worth doing, and it does send a powerful message.