Campus ministry has raised over $1,000 and will be sending some of it, along with two cows, to areas of need in Africa and Afghanistan. The department recently completed its Hunger and Homelessness campaign, which included fasting, food donations, a banquet and a unique program that saw students and faculty being arrested outside of the food court.
The campaign began on Cabrini Day and went on through Thanksgiving,, as it does every year. One of the major events saw student and faculty working in a telethon format with a twist. Campus ministry created a mock prison and sent people to jail to call their friends and professors in order to raise money for bail.
Dr. James Hedtke, chair of the history and political science department, usually does his best to raise money, but due to classes and advising, he could not be arrested. Hedtke did, however, make his presence felt, standing outside of the prison and stopping students and persuading them to make their own donatation.
Even president Antoinette Iadorola was even arrested for hunger with students and faculty members, but managed to raise somewhere around $400. Local news stations picked up the story, with clips of Iadorola shaking hands and raising money. She made calls to faculty and her cabrinet, then ended up making a donation out of her own pocket for her bail. Iadorola is glad to see things grow and is proud of the work campus ministry has done. “There’s a sense of giving back and that’s what we do well here,” Iadorola said.
Sophomore Karen Bonin did most of her work with the Hunger Banquet, held in the Mansion. While the banquet is one of the key events every year, this year major changes were made to the script to give it more of a Cabrini feel, including lines about the Dorrences, the family students are told about when on tours or orientation. Mary Laver, coordinator of community outreach, played the role of Mrs. Dorrence, coming in at the end and claiming her husband was still not on time for their banquet.
Bonin worked hard on changing the script and acted a s a coordinator for the banquet, but notes “the group members did a lot of work, so it’s not like it’s just one person.” The committee for the Hunger Banquet worked on poster and dealing with RSVPs for the banquet, attempting to put a number on paper for Wood Dining Service, Cabrini food service and the extra hand who helped serve rice, chicken, broth, bread and cake at the event.
The event itself saw people assuming roles of real life people, losing their jobs or being promoted. The portions of the food equaled the participants’ class, with the lowest class eating nothing by dry rice and distributing a few pieces of toast to over twenty people.
The event ended with a speaker who showed slides of the work being done with Heifer International, an organization that works to feed the homeless around the world. The organization worked in conjunction to send two cows to areas of Africa and Afghanistan., which can be used to feed families for years.
The campaign came to a close around Thanksgiving, when campus ministry was able to work with ACME and volunteers to deliver 70 turkeys, 140 pies and assorted canned goods to hungry families in the Philadelphia area. Though the campaign is over, campus ministry will now be working on Christmas project, including toy donation.
