Annual "Feast or Famine" Hunger Banquet (February)

It is a cooperative effort to raise awareness of food disparities locally and worldwide. All proceeds benefit our food bank.

It is always held on Fat Tuesday in February.

Tickets are available at Sunnycrest Nursery and the event's sponsors:

• Family Resource Center
• Longbranch Improvement Club
• Longbranch Community Church
• Homeport Restaurant

"I had heard about this dinner from someone who went last year and was fascinated by the idea of having people eat appropriate to the percentages of wealth around the world. A friend went with me and we arrived at the Longbranch Improvement club last Tuesday night. Giving up our tickets we were given an envelope and told we would open them all at the same time. Inside the main room, there was a head table, four or five round tables in the middle and the edge was of rectangular tables with newspaper mats and mason jar glasses. Because it was a "soup" theme, there were pottery wares for sale and a silent auction. This divided us up according to the worlds population (10% have abundant food, 20% have adequate food, 70% are barely subsistence)

We opened our envelopes and my friend and I were sitting at the "dieter’s delight" the tables with newspaper settings. Another friend was escorted around the barricades to the head table where 10 people had four waiters, silver and linen and were served a multicourse meal with soup, salad, bread, steak, potatoes and dessert. The rest of us watched. Gradually the people at the round tables were served a hearty chicken noodle soup and bread and coleslaw. Finally we on the outside were served water and a spicy broth soup.

As the dinner progressed, some people begged at the front table, others tried to rally others to demonstrate against those who had so much. Most of us just hunkered down and talked about food, festive meals, starvation, not having enough, having too much. A local schoolteacher who had traveled to Africa talked about food, multinational corporations and how the food purchases we make each day profoundly affect people around the world. I learned a lot, met wonderful people, had some great discussions."

- Heidi Hendricks