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Event hopes to raise awareness about issue of hunger

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November 15, 2009

An interactive, educational and family-friendly event raising awareness about the issue of hunger will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18 at room 204, Gorecki Dining and Conference Center, College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph.

“The Hunger Banquet: Raising Hunger Awareness” is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by the Bonner Leader Program at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University.

The goal of the Hunger Banquet is to educate the community about the issue of hunger both locally and globally. A person dies of hunger in the world every 3.6 seconds – and 75 percent of those victims are children. According to the Bread for the World Institute, 852 million people across the world are hungry, up from 842 million a year ago.

The event will also feature two speakers – Pastor Carol Jean Smith from Place of Hope Ministries in St. Cloud, and Iva Katzmarek, who works in the women’s program and transportation area of Place of Hope Ministries. Place of Hope has taken an active role in both the issues of hunger and homelessness in the St. Cloud area.

The Hunger Banquet takes place during National Hunger and Homelessness Week Nov. 15-21. It is held the week before Thanksgiving to draw attention to the devastating problems of homelessness and hunger in America, and is co-sponsored by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness.

The Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation’s motto is Access to Education. Opportunity to Serve. Celebrating its 20th anniversary in the spring, the Bonner Foundation has faithfully instilled six common commitments — social justice, international perspective, diversity, spirituality, community building and civic engagement — into all who are a part of the Bonner network.  In the fall of 2008, CSB and SJU joined more than 85 colleges and universities across the nation in this student movement with the establishment of the CSB and SJU Bonner Leader Program.