With a flurry of activities sponsored by various campus organizations, Students Fighting Hunger kicked off the annual Hunger Awareness Week to combat poverty and homelessness in the Upper Valley.
The organizers of the week -- Kim Barry '95, Charlotte Hanley '95, Kenrick Leung '95, Amy McLean '96 and Jun Tsutsumi '96 -- have been planning the week's events since the end of this summer.
Students Fighting Hunger has between 15 to 20 core members but Leung said nearly 10 times that many people get involved with Hunger Awareness Week. Each of the week's activities is organized by a committee with a varied number of people.
"There must be at least 150 people working in large or small ways, maybe even more ... from planning to actually carrying out the events or advertising," Leung said.
Money raised through the events will be donated to Upper Valley pantries and shelters including The Listen Center, The Haven and Hartford Food Station and used to support national projects such as Save the Children, according to Leung.
Last year's successful campaign raised about $7,000 from administrators, students, faculty and employees, Tucker Foundation Volunteer Coordinator Randall Quan '93 said. He said he hopes to exceed that amount this year and also solicit about 3,000 cans of food.
But Leung expressed concern that word of the events has not been reaching the students because of the low turnout at the program's panel discussion Sunday.
"We're putting on these events for the students and for the community also," he added.
Hunger Awareness Week first began at the College on Nov. 16, 1978 with a fast and a panel discussion, Quan said.
Since then, the program has grown into the largest and longest running collegiate Hunger Awareness Week in the country, according to Jennifer Coken, former director of the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness.
Quan agreed that the College has the largest program in terms of the number, diversity and sponsorship of the events.
"[Homelessness] is a fairly big problem in this area. At any one time there is a 3 to 5 percent homeless population in the area," Quan said.
"We could be running food drives forever if we don't look to solve the problem," Quan said.
Some informal events such as canned-goods-for-admission parties at Eleazar's Dungeon and Greek houses kicked off Hunger Awareness Week over the weekend.
On Sunday there was a benefit Race Against Hunger and a panel discussion titled "GATT and the Political Economy of Hunger" in 105 Dartmouth Hall.
Yesterday a Global Dinner was held in Collis Common Ground to make students aware of the disparity of food between different regions of the world.
Tonight there will be showing of "The Saint of Fort Washington" and a discussion dealing with the problem of hunger at Loew Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.
The highlight of the week will be the keynote address, titled "Developing the Political Will to End Hunger," by John Morrill, executive director of the Congressional Hunger Caucus, on Wednesday at 8 p.m. in the Hinman Forum in the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Social Sciences.
Other events will include a hunger fast starting Wednesday, a vigil on the Green and an a capella benefit concert Thursday and a grocery store food drive Saturday in front of several supermarkets and convenience stores.
Though Hunger Awareness Week is organized by Students Fighting Hunger, it is co-sponsored by many campus organizations: academic departments.
