Hunger Week 2014. No, it doesn’t mean we feed our hunger and prepare for Thanksgiving by gorging on all the leftover Halloween candy. Rather, it means that as a campus, St. Ambrose University acknowledges that there is hunger in the world, and we are going to do something about it. Hunger Week is an annual event at SAU, organized by Ambrosians for Peace and Justice. This year it is scheduled to take place Nov. 3-8.
The week after Fall Break this year, APJ held a Clothes out Hunger Sale in the Cosgrove basement. They sold clothes that students donated, and all of the proceeds went toward the events for Hunger Week.
Monday kicks off Hunger Week with Brewed Awakening at 8 p.m. in the gathering space of the chapel. The discussion will focus on hunger. On Tuesday, Greenlife will hold a bake sale in the Beehive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday brings the packing of 3,000 meals for Kids Against Hunger of the Quad Cities. Don’t forget about APJ’s weekly meeting at 8 p.m. in the lower chapel on Wednesday night. On Thursday in Cosgrove, students will have the opportunity to join in a letter writing campaign for the Water for the World Act. The week will wrap up on Saturday starting with the documentary, “A Place at the Table” in McCarthy 013 at 11 a.m.
Saturday also brings the big event and the culmination of Hunger Week 2014. It’s the Hungry Games! The games start at 9 p.m. in the Beehive. Two tributes from each residence hall will compete in the “Minute to Win It” game. The winner of the games will earn two tickets to the upcoming movie, “Mockingjay.” Among the numerous events held each day this week, there will also be a canned food drive in the residence halls. Students are encouraged to take a picture of their canned food and post it to any form of social media using the hashtag mealforameal to help fight hunger in Australia. For every canned food, the donator gets to nominate one person as tribute for the games.
Although SAU is a small university, we can make a difference this week by raising awareness and helping as much as we can to fight hunger. We may not be able to end all of it, but we can end it for some people, and that is truly making a difference.