No food for thought

This Thanksgiving think of others

by Margaret LeRoux

As a restaurant reviewer I'm frequently confronting excess: "the richer, the better" sums up many of my dining experiences. How often have I enjoyed pricey fillets adorned in exotic sauce and accompanied by unusual vegetables? Or how many times have I complained that presentation and service haven't lived up to their potential. Just about every week. So, imagine the shock of attending a recent benefit on Salisbury Street that will be remembered not for its food, but for the lack of it.

Just a handful of us at this banquet were served dinner. The rest of us had to sit on the floor -- we got a bowl of rice, and when that ran out we had only water to sip. I guess I should have been forewarned by the name of the fundraiser, Oxfam America's Hunger Banquet, sponsored by Notre Dame Academy. Sure enough, most of us left hungry.

Quite literally, we experienced the way most people in the world eat each day, or sometimes not even that often. In fact, 840 million people worldwide suffer from hunger. And 34,000 children die of hunger-related causes every day; that's one death every two and a half seconds. Most of us had a twinge of indigestion at the food for thought offered by Oxfam's Nahib Bedelia:

"The next time you stop at the deli for a bagel and coffee, consider that the average daily income for a family in the African nation of Chad is $1.25," she said. "That's less than what you'd pay for your coffee break."

It's not that there is a worldwide food shortage, Bedelia explained, it's just that the richest nations consume a majority of it. If the world production of food were distributed equally, every person on the planet would receive enough -- 2500 calories per day -- to sustain him or her.

Oxfam has been raising awareness about world hunger since 1942, when it was founded as the Oxford Famine Relief Committee in England to address the needs of WW2 refugees. There's been an Oxfam in the US since 1970, and the organization operates in 11 countries around the world. Last year, Oxfam spent a half-billion dollars in development-assistance and education in 120 countries funded primarily by private donations, foundations, bequests and support from corporations. The organization doesn't accept any government funding.

Notre Dame Academy, which raised $500 at this banquet, has been involved with Oxfam for 25 years and has hosted hunger banquets since 1991.

Similar banquets -- the next one in Central Massachusetts is at UMass Dartmouth on November 17 -- are popular among college campuses. There are about 500 of them given each year, most in Massachusetts and California.

Another event the organization sponsors is the annual Fast for World Harvest on November 18. If you want to experience hunger or salve your first-world conscience, you can forgo dinner and send the money you would have spent to Oxfam.

What does Oxfam do with the funds it raises? In El Salvador, it helped coffee growers build a processing plant so they could get a better price for coffee beans; in Vietnam, Oxfam helped fund a credit and savings program that allows women to earn income by raising pigs and chickens.

Oxfam also works to stem poverty in the US. In the Boston area, the organization has helped fund the start-up of a catering cooperative run by Ethiopian immigrants.

If you want more information about Oxfam or the Hunger Banquets, visit the Web site: www.oxfamamerica.org.

It's almost time for the holidays and for all the excesses of food that they bring. This year before feasting, do something (try volunteering, writing a check, or donating food to the local foodbank) about hunger in the world.