Stomachs Often Speak Louder than Words: 1st World vs. 3rd World Dinner Event

You can do this event using your school cafeteria, a popular restaurant, or even your house! (Just remember to get permission first!)

Send out invitations to the general public to attend dinner with your organization. Make the event FREE -this will draw people- and try to swing getting some type of extra credit or other incentive thrown their way if they attend.

Place a “1^st world” or a “3^rd world” card under each of the chairs, making sure to have a good mix of 1^st world-ers and 3^rd world-ers beside each other and at the same table.

Have a representative from your group sitting at each of the tables as well. Each table should have hunger statistics from a different region of the world. It may be a good idea to make handouts that they can give to the attendees to read along with, in case they may have any questions.

Seat people as they come in. Once everyone has been seated, pray over the food and for the people all around the world.

Tell the attendees to reach under their seats and retrieve their cards. Allow the “1^st world” people to go up to the food table and get as much or as little food as they want. The “3^rd world” people are allowed to get beans and rice.                       

As they all eat together, have the representatives go over the statistics for their region with their table. Encourage them to facilitate discussion, answer questions and discuss their feelings and reactions.

You may want to allow 3^rd world-ers to go up and get extra food after the event is over, to avoid instilling bitterness since they were expecting a meal when they came out to your event.

You may also want to have extra literature available for them to take home, as well as have a signup sheet for them to help out at a local soup kitchen or donate money to a mission dealing specifically with hunger issues.

Let us know how this idea worked for you!

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