A Few of this Year’s College Highlights
We've just wrapped up this year's amazing Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. We're still sifting through all of the great stories about this year's events. Here we wanted to share just a few of the best events organized on college campuses.
College of Charleston
Villanova University
University of Central Florida
Spotlight: Towson University
At Towson University, the Office of Civic Engagement and Leadership organizes Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.
Their latest Awareness Week features a mixture of community service opportunities and awareness-raising events. For their biggest service event, students joined with Clay Pots, a local community center, to clean up and beautify a neighborhood in southwest Baltimore. During the week, volunteers also assembled personal care kits for people experiencing homelessness and made PB&J sandwiches for a local food bank.
To raise awareness and educate the public, the Office of Civic Engagement and Leadership held a panel discussion on local homelessness and a movie screening. They also organized a week-long food and clothing drive to support local food banks and shelters.
Event Idea: Us and Them
If you are seeking a movie to screen during Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, consider showing "Us and Them," a new documentary on homelessness.
For this film, filmmaker Krista Loughton spent ten years documenting the lives of four chronically homeless individuals. These four charismatic people reveal the heartrending realities of their lives. The severe challenges of life on the street are portrayed with an unapologetic openness, in both emotive and humorous ways. All are struggling with addiction issues rooted in their painful childhood histories. Their stories help to break down the stereotypes about homelessness, changing the way that filmgoers view the homeless.
In describing the film, Dr. Sam Tsemberis, founder and director of the Pathways Housing First Institute, said: "Labeling our fellow human beings as 'homeless' creates separation and allows for conflict. Hearing the remarkable stories of struggle and survival of the people in this film brings us closer to them and eliminates the distance between us."
To learn more about the film and contact the filmmaker about holding a screening, visit the film's website.
Event Idea: Hold a Sleepout
The "One Night Without a Home" sleepout is a popular piece of many Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Weeks.
At this event, volunteers spend a night outside - typically for 12 hours, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. - to raise awareness about the problem of homelessness. You can choose to have your volunteers sleep outside in sleeping bags, carboard boxes, or tents. While most of the night will be spent sleeping, you should fill the first couple hours of the event with speakers, discussions, or activities to educate the participants about homelessness.
Although one night outside can in no way equate with real homelessness, this activity can raise awareness among both participants and the campus community. Make sure to hold your sleepout in a busy location where people passing by will see the event and learn about it.
A variation on this concept is the “Living in a Car” sleepout, where volunteers take turns spending 12-hour shifts living in a car in a public location to simulate how some homeless people are forced to live.
Spotlight: College of Charleston
At the College of Charleston, the Center for Civic Engagement organizes Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.
This past year, the priority for their Awareness Week was to provide students with opportunities to take action through a series of service events at the local farmers market, the campus dining halls, and the regional food bank. Students also organized a campus-wide clothing drive to benefit a local homeless shelter.
In order to educate students about the issues, they also held a series of documentary movie screenings on campus. After each screening, students hosted a discussion to encourage critical reflection about the film. In addition, the Center for Civic Engagement partnered with the college’s Office of Sustainability to host a Social Justice Coffee Hour revolving around hunger and homelessness.
Spotlight: The University of Akron
At the University of Akron, the Department of Student Life’s serveAkron program organizes Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.
The anchor of their Awareness Week last year was a week-long food drive for their regional food bank. In addition, they offered a busy schedule of educational events and service projects including a movie screening, service trips to the local homeless shelter and regional food bank, a meal packaging event, and a casino night designed to teach players about poverty.
A group of students, staff, and faculty members also spent the week taking the SNAP Challenge, by trying to live on the same daily budget as a food stamp recipient.
In total, more than 400 students participated in the week’s events.
Event Idea: Hold an Empty Bowls Fundraiser
The Empty Bowls fundraiser is a longstanding staple of many Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Weeks. The first Empty Bowls event was held 26 years ago, and since then the event has spread to locations across the world.
An Empty Bowls event serves both to raise awareness about poverty and raise money for a local charity. The first step is to find a local arts center or business that will let you use their workspace and their kiln. Once you have a location, enlist a group of volunteers to make and paint their own ceramic bowls. Encourage them to get creative - each bowl should feel original.
The next step is to organize a dinner event to showcase the bowls. Attendees will be asked to make a donation and in exchange they will be fed a simple meal of soup and bread out of one of the handmade bowls. Each attendee gets to take their bowl home as a reminder of the experience. You should also invite a guest speaker to talk to the group and lead a discussion during the dinner about hunger and homelessness in the community.
For more information on the history of Empty Bowls, visit www.emptybowls.net.