Hunger Meal highlights wealth gap in access to food

On Thursday evening, UW-Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs’ Student Association (LSSA) will host a Hunger Meal to demonstrate food consumption disparities between the world’s wealthy and impoverished.

The Hunger Meal will be served on March 1,  from 6-9 p.m. in the On Wisconsin room of the Red Gym to attendees who purchased $25 tickets in advance. The event is a fundraiser for both LSSA and Second Harvest Food Pantry.

The tickets are put into a pot upon arrival and act as raffle tickets to determine which type of dinner each person receives. As each ticket is drawn out of the pot it is assigned to an “income class,” designating a person’s socioeconomic status for the evening.

The majority of the tickets, around 85 percent, will be the lowest income group. A small number of tickets will serve as the middle class, and an even fewer number will be the wealthy class.

Attendees will then be served dinner in accordance with their class. The highest class will be served a Peruvian stew by a wait staff, complete on linen tablecloths and china plates. The middle class will get more modest seating, no waiters, and a vegetable stew. The poor class will receive only utensils, and will eat rice and beans.

All of the food will be catered by the Wisconsin Union and is vegetarian or vegan. This is an expression of how most people in poverty do not eat meat or animal products on a daily basis.

“In our daily lives we don’t see first hand the wealth differences because we are all at a certain level, and most of our friends or the people we interact with are at that same level,” said Pete Braden, LSSA fundraising coordinator. “If you’re not living in poverty, it’s hard to visualize what that would actually be like.”

Visualizing wealth disparities by serving different types of meals in the same room will help attendees understand how people around the world are eating.

“We’re not saying this event will teach you what it means to be poor, but it’s a way for people to get experimental learning, get outside their comfort zone and plant some seeds for discussion,” said Braden.

Guest speaker Dr. Robert Haveman, a professor in the La Follette School, will also speak at the event. Braden said that LSSA chose Dr. Haveman because he is social inequality expert and can speak to how wealth disparities have accelerated in the last decades.

The talk will address the broader picture of the wealth and income inequality in America and will be followed by a question and answer session. 

Braden hopes to have as many as sixty guests. Shannon Schaefer, a student and staff member of UW-Madison, will be one of the attendees.

“I’ve heard of the concept of the Hunger Meal and was interested in it because I know how hard it is to get out of the poverty cycle, and that people are struggling with it daily,” Schaefer said.

Proceeds from the event will go to the La Follette School Student Association. Also, $5 from each ticket will go to the Second Harvest Food Pantry. For more information and to inquire about tickets, email Peter Braden at pbraden@wisc.edu.