Calvin College
Faith & International Development Conference
Broken Bread Poverty Meal
The Broken Bread Poverty Meal is a creative activism event sponsored by World Vision's Acting on AIDS. Participants are invited to identify, interact with and intercede for those broken by the cycle of AIDS, poverty and hunger. Using a simple porridge meal, true-to-life stories, discussion, prayer and advocacy, students are invited to engage their faith and respond with their hearts and through their citizenship. This year the meal will focus on the inequality in global food distribution as participants partake in meals representative of the different levels of consumption in the world.
Reflections on a meal
by Melissa Lucio
For once, the entire college cafeteria was quiet. There were about 400 students from the Faith & International Development Conference waiting in a line that wound around all three sections of the building, and we shuffled slowly forward to get our ration of dinner. I was one of the first in line, and even though I already had an idea of what I was going to be given, it was still surprising to see the serving area so bare. While at lunch there had been a variety of different foods filling the openings in the counter, now all were closed except for one. As I walked back to my table, holding that small paper bowl, I couldn’t bring myself to look anyone around me in the eye. People actually eat this everyday around the world…. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, for their eyes seemed fixed on the mushy porridge sloshing around between my hands. They’d have to eat it, too.
As I sat down to eat what I had been given, a substance with the consistency of plain, watered-down grits, I read the sheet of paper I received with the meal. I learned about Ruth, a woman living in Kenya, whose recent HIV diagnosis had stripped her of her job, and with that of any means to have a home or obtain food. Although she was one of those blessed to receive treatment for her HIV, without the proper nutrition (which she could not afford) the medicine would be ineffective, making Ruth feel sicker and hastening the disease’s progression towards AIDS. Her obvious decline in health prevented her from being hired anywhere: “Without work, what do I do?” I couldn’t provide an answer.
We were gathered in one of Calvin College’s dining halls, participating in something called the Broken Bread Poverty Meal. It’s an event meant to raise awareness, according to the Acting on AIDS sheet we received, of “the 1 billion people in the world living in desperate poverty, the 40 million people living with HIV or AIDS, and the 15 million children orphaned by AIDS” (keep in mind those are last year’s figures). The porridge in our bowls was the exact same food used in “food distribution programs targeting those infected with HIV or affected by AIDS”.
The difficulty I had in establishing eye contact stemmed from a sense of shame and humility, and this wave of sentiment spread across every table in the dining hall; every head stayed hunched over a bowl and a story. I couldn’t help thinking of how I would return to my usual dietary intake just a few hours later. Everything would be back to “normal”, while millions around the world would continue to eat this practically flavorless “corn-soy blend” day after day. Considering how we eat in the West compared to billions of people around the world, I realized that I really wouldn’t be returning to “normal” eating habits – I’d be consuming unbelievably excessive amounts of food.
One way that the West can look at its wealth is by the amount of food we can afford to eat, or rather, by the amount of food we can afford to waste every day. Choose any college and stand by a tray return line. The amount of food alone being thrown out each day is appalling. The buffet-style meal provided in college dining halls across the nation allows students to take as much food as they want, whether they plan to eat it all or not. I have done it myself. Unfortunately, along with this bountiful provision comes a slew of commentary, remarking on how this could have been better, how that could have had more flavor, how “this is the worst meal they’ve served yet”, how “gosh, I’m stuck eating cereal again”. For many of us at Calvin, all this comes after having bowed our heads just moments before, giving thanks to God for providing us with a meal. Watery, nearly flavorless puree – could any of us look any one of the millions who call that breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the eye and complain about what we have? I doubt it.
Participating in the Broken Bread Poverty Meal has definitely opened my eyes, and I hope to never again forget the immense gap that separates the quality of what I eat everyday and what so many around the world have no choice but to eat – if they do eat, that is. Reading Ruth’s story and hearing the stories of others around the world whose situations are just as bad as hers (if not worse) helped me put a face on the overall problem of poverty and emphasized the urgency with which we need to work in order to better the situation.
This meal event was a great way for the Faith & International Development Conference to challenge and inspire each of us to change our attitudes, start fighting against the inequities that hinder the renewal of God’s world, and promote His kingdom of justice and peace. This year’s meal event for the FIDC will be even more powerful, because it involves social class differences and the effects of rising food prices. I encourage any of you who are interested in issues of international development (no matter what your major is) to register today.