Technician
thursday january
28 2010
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Dinner raises poverty awareness Students experience culture shock, acquire understanding of starvation Jasmine Willis Staff Writer
Jan. 27 students got to experience different hierarchies of a typical third-world nation in the Walnut Room of Talley. As students entered the door, they chose a colored slip of paper determining their social class. The main purpose of Hunger Dinner: A Taste of World Hunger was to give students a better understanding of the starvation around the world. The starvation was mainly displayed in the lower class. The students’ meal consisted of a shared pan of rice and a pitcher of water. There was no silverware so people ate with their hands. The middle class received plastic silverware and their meal was limited to rice, beans and green beans and juice or water. The upper class received Sterling Silver utensils and unlimited refills of drinks, a salad, spaghetti, lemon, butter, bread
“The program was great in bringing awareness about poverty. The money it takes to make one missile can fund a school for five years.” Ethan Grimmer, a sophomore in psychology
and all the above. Ali McDaniel, executive director of the Service Leadership team, said he felt the main purpose of the program was to educate people about hunger and issues globally. “Often people do not realize the distinctions in social status in everyday life,” McDaniel said, “People are typically with a group in the same social class.” To McDaniel, the program challenged the statistics about the social status of people in a typical country. The majority of people fall into the poverty range, making up 60 percent of the population. These people make less than $2.50 a day. 14 percent make up the extremely impoverished people. 16 percent
make up the diminishing middle class and about 10 percent are in the upper class, making over $9,000 in a year. “Seeing how other people have to live and how easily the lower middle class can switch to extreme poverty had a great impact on the students,” McDaniel said. Various individuals are born into a low sector not by choice and it is extremely hard to get out of the situation, he said. Some people feel they cannot make a difference. People were talking about giving their food to another. Every single person doing something can make a difference. To Christine Nguyen, director of Hunger and Homelessness, the high attendance and the high quality of the group
made the program effective. “I never realized how committed students were to the issue,” Nguyen said. Many students wanted to participate, had really good comments and were really interested in the topics. “Actually seeing the disparity in the lower, middle class and upper class hit home for a lot of people,” Nguyen said. Numerous students took the program as a learning experience as oppose to taking their particular rank personally. Nguyen said,” I was surprised in how much humility there was when people offered their utensils and food to the lower class.” Ethan Grimmer, a sophomore in psychology feels there should be more programs about hunger awareness. “Walking into the door, we had to choose a piece of colored construction paper without looking and based on the color we were randomly categorized into a social class,” Grimmer said. The number
Hunger continued page 3
Conservative women’s club hosts Mary Katharine Ham Ham encourages women to find empowerment without government intervention Jessica Neville Science & Tech Editor
Tim O’Brien/Technician
Corinne Dumonceau, junior in civil engineering, milks a used bag into a compost can as Lauren Morris, junior in biomedical engineering, tosses plastic into the adjacent bin for the From the Landfill to the Landscape event on west campus Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2009. The crew of volunteers hand sorted the trash from all of Fountain Dining Hall’s trash from the previous day to demonstrate how much was compostable.
University Dining begins waste reduction process University Waste Reduction and Recycling office, University Dining team up for composting program Joanna Banegas Staff Writer
Students got down and dirty Wednesday during a waste audit from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m between Bragaw and Sullivan residence halls. University Dining hosted the waste audit in collaboration with the University’s Waste Reduction and Recycling office with the purpose of establishing a composting program for campus dining halls. Student volunteers spent four hours sorting through the contents from a Fountain Dining Hall dumpster. Analis Fulghum, education and outreach coordinator at Waste Reduction and Recycling, said as part of their commitment they are looking at composting at all of the dining halls. “The first step to moving in that direction is auditing their waste dumpsters,” Fulghum said. “We are doing this to see how much could be com-
Fulghum said they collected data posted and what kind of impact that would have towards the campus being once they were done with the program. more sustainable.” “We are weighing the items and then 15 volunteers sifted through the we will be reporting waste searching for [the results],” she items that could said. “Every thing have been recycled that we are taking and potential conin today is going to taminants to the be composted.” recycling program. Ariel Fugate, a Fulghum said last sophomore in fishyear the University’s ery and wildlife and Waste Reduction an intern at the Uniand Recycling proversity Waste Reducgram did a waste tion and Recycling audit outside Lee office, said she got residence hall. involved in conser“We tried to see vation as freshman how residence halls when she wondered were doing w it h Analis Fulghum, education and where all the dorms’ conser vation but outreach coordinator trash went. this year we are tar “A lot of it goes to geting the dining the landfill,” Fugate halls,” she said. The audit site consisted of bins set said. “That is kind of disappointing up for organic items, recycling items to me so it’s always been a dream of and trash. After sorting through the mine to do something about it. Now items, the volunteers separated the it’s happening and I’m here to help.” waste and the items to be composted.
“The University has set a goal to divert their waste. As of now we divert about 45 percent of our waste.”
WASTE continued page 3
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More Info For more information about NeW at N.C. State, check out the Facebook group page: “NeW at N.C. State”. You can also find contact info for Taylor McLamb on this page. The next NeW meeting will be Sunday, Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m. in the D.H. Hill presentation room.
Fox News contributor and author Mary Katharine Ham, who’s work has appeared on www.townhall. com and The Weekly Standard, spoke last night at Meredith Col- ily roles to clothing to women in the lege. The event, entitled “NeW workplace.” Ham opened by saying it is posWave Feminism: Girl Power without Government” was hosted by sible for women to be conservative or Meredith’s chapter of Network of in the Republican Party and still be enlightened Women, the nation’s feminists. “Liberal women’s organizations say premier club for conservative unithat if you’re a woman, you have to be versity women. According to Jessica Custer, state liberal, or you aren’t really a woman,” Ham said. “That idea chairwoman for is oppressive in itself. NeW in North Our past women’s Carolina, NeW rights proponents began in 2004 at worked so that we the University of could have a choice Virginia and has i n ou r pol it ic a l since expanded views.” to 25 campuses Ham encouraged nationwide. female students to North Carothink outside of the lina current ly box about feminism, has three NeW political parties and chapters. Those how they supported three are at the Fox News contributor and one another. Un iver sit y of author Mary Katharine Ham “There’s a stereoNorth Carolina type that if you’re a at Chapel Hill, Meredith College and, most re- woman, you are in the Democratic Party,” Ham said. “But women who cently, N.C. State. According to Anna Beavon are independents are actually listened Gravely, president of Meredith’s to more. It’s not good for women to NeW chapter, NeW is true femi- get stuck in a certain voting block.” Another of Ham’s main points nism because it encourages women to think critically and avoid one- circulated around her opinion that government can be a detriment to sided debate. “NeW encourages intellectual women rather than the answer to evdiversity through a book club set- ery problem. She gave an example of ting with face-to-face discussions,” the banning of fish pedicures in four Gravely said. “We talk about issues that pertain to women, from famwomen continued page 3
“There’s a stereotype that if you’re a woman, you are in the Democratic Party.”
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