Sweet Briar’s business management students are hosting an Oxfam Hunger Banquet 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 25, in the Josey Dining Room of Prothro. The free event is open to the public and is designed to increase awareness of world hunger and poverty.

At the Hunger Banquet, guests are randomly assigned to high-, middle- or low-income brackets and receive an equivalent meal. This might mean a gourmet meal at a nice table with candlesticks, rice and beans at an undecorated table, or rice and water on the floor.

“Through this event, we hope to make our campus more socially aware of the hunger that affects impoverished nations around the world on a daily basis,” Natalie Renaldo ’09, the event’s planner, said.

Other goals of the project are to provide realistic business management experiences for students and fundraising for Oxfam America.

According to the organization’s Web site www.oxfamamerica.org, Oxfam America is a “non-profit organization that works to end global poverty through saving lives, strengthening communities, and campaigning for change.”

For the past four years, Sweet Briar business students have organized a dining hall fast in support of Oxfam America. Last year, nearly 400 students participated, and each year projects have raised at least $1,500.

This year, students in the Fundamentals of Managements Laboratory and Practicum in Business Management classes have added an Oxfam dance and the Hunger Banquet. The dining hall fast will be held on Nov. 15. “The Hunger Banquet is something new to us,” associate professor of business management Tom Loftus said. “It’s very exciting.”

Guest speakers for the Hunger Banquet are associate professor Debbie Durham and assistant professor Debbie Kasper, of SBC’s anthropology and sociology department.

To participate, those interested in attending the Hunger Banquet must RSVP to oxfam@sbc.edu.

For more information, contact Renaldo at renaldo09@sbc.edu .

– By Suzanne Ramsey, SBC staff writer