Kaila F: Very first blog ever!

Hi!  My name is Kaila and I am very excited to be attending another amazing student conference(this is my first time blogging, so bare with me).  I am here with an incredible group of motivated, intelligent, and superb beings, a group from Johnson State College, located in the wild, frozen lands of Northern Vermont.  

Today an especially incredible opportunity arose for us Vermonters.  A group of students on our campus is currently planning to do our own Oxfam America Hunger Banquet.  Our hope is to educate the local community about hunger that many people are faced with every single day.  Tonight, we had the chance to experience the event that we are planning (like mad!) to host at our very own small campus.  

I do not think I realized how much this event would mean to me until I experienced it firsthand today.  I knew the in's and out's of the event, which class coordinated with which color character card.  I knew what the speakers would be saying throughout most of the event.  I knew that people in the different classes would be eating foods representing the different poverty levels of the world.  But how can one prepare for the emotions that arise during, as well as following the event.  For me, it was quite unexpected.  After memorizing statistics and hearing about the horrible situations people face in their daily lives, I thought it wouldn't get to me this time.  When in fact, it was quite the opposite.  As I walked out of the Cabot Gymnasium this evening, I thought about everything that affects hunger.  I thought about why people, who have so much, cannot share with others?  Why are people so hungry in Haiti that they have to resolve to eating dirt cookies?  We are all human beings.  We all deserve to live happy and healthy lives.  What makes this world so unfair, so unjust that this poverty can continue everyday without drastically changing?

Tonight I realized that this problem, this epidemic of hunger, needs to stop.  Things need to change.  Tonight I am fasting for those people who do not have a choice whether or not they receive a portion of rice for their meal.  Tonight I am fasting for all of the children in the world whose last words on this earth are "Mommy, I'm hungry". 

This experience was a very positive one.  We walked away from it even more informed than we already were.  Now we have been given the tools to get out into our community and give others the tools and support they need to move into positive action.  Without the education, there is no action.  Without the action, there is no change.  I wish luck to every student out there trying to make a difference in this world.  We have the ability to create change, so keep fighting for what you believe in!