Image by Ian Kei Hoi – The Quill
By Grace Tesoro Staff Writer
The Johnson Center for Civic Engagement (JCCE) held their annual Hunger Banquet to raise awareness on local poverty Wednesday night.
The Johnson Center collaborated with the Greater Susquehanna Valley (GSV) United Way to give a presentation on the varying poverty levels in Northumberland, Snyder and Union Counties.
Guest speaker and Susquehanna alumna Joanne Troutman, President and CEO of the GSV United Way, conducted the presentation. She started by pointing out how audience members were split into three, uneven groups with different eating scenarios.
“What is group one eating and how are they set up?” she asked.
The first group, containing a small number of people, had been set around a table covered by a white linen tablecloth. They were given salad and potatoes set on fine china, silverware, and gold-rimmed glasses.
Troutman suggested that this group could potentially represent a family sitting comfortably and enjoying their meal.
She made the audience look to group two, a slightly larger group who sat in a circle of folding chairs. They had been served burgers, fries and pizza on plastic plates.
“This group could represent a family where both parents are working, and they come home with fast food because it is cheaper. They feed their family with what they can,” Troutman explained.
The third group outnumbered the others and they were seated on the floor. The third group’s meal consisted of cheap ramen noodles and a bag of Middleswarth potato chips.
“These groups were set up strategically to represent society, therefore, we had a small number of people at the nice table, whereas there were more people served ramen and were on the floor, representing the lower class,” said coordinator for the JCCE, Miranda Carrasquillo.
Troutman then shared statistics of the poverty levels across the three counties that the Greater Susquehanna Valley United Way supports.
“Northumberland out of the three counties has the highest poverty rate, with 15% of the population living under the poverty line with an ALICE of 25%,” Troutman said.
Troutman explained the acronym ALICE which stands for “Asset-Limited-Income-Constrained-Employee.”
“This is a person who basically lives paycheck to paycheck,” she said.
The discussion changed to the topic of food insecurity, which Troutman defined as “not knowing when or what you will be eating next”.
Through the presentation, Troutman highlighted the importance of getting food on people’s plates but the cost of it in a more ethical sense. She emphasized it was not more so about the quantity of the food, but the quality.
Troutman asked the audience to think more profoundly on the issue, “Is it important to feed people or feeding people nutritional food?” she asked.
She talked on the issue of how it is cheaper to get unhealthier food that does not perish as quickly compared to getting a healthier meal for people struggling.
Troutman encouraged audience members to volunteer for local food banks, community gardens and other service opportunities.
Junior Kathleen Owens attended the Hunger Banquet and said it impacted her.
“To see poverty on this very at home scale regarding about poverty and what is happening in local communities I thought was very enlightening” Owens said.
Carrasquillo also commented on the impact of the event.
“I hope people who came will walk away with a deeper sense of understanding of what people go through in the local communities.”