Famine for a Night

Organizing a “Famine for a Night” is a fun way to raise awareness and donations in your community. During a “Famine for a Night,” a group of people fasts for 24 hours to raise awareness of world hunger and poverty and donations for organizations that work to address these issues. The following is the testimonial of Sarah W. who organized a “Famine for a Night” at Gulf Islands High School:

A “Famine for a Night” is one of many ways in which one can support the cause of ending world hunger. In the devloped world it is rare that we ever feel the sensation of hunger more than a few hours. By fasting for one day, you really feel from the inside what millions of people in the developing world feel every day. The following is what our high school did in order to prepare and organize a 30-hour fast, where the participants spent an afternoon, a night, and the following day without eating.

First of all we had to pick and confirm a date and location. Next we assigned tasks: there was someone to keep track of the money, someone to take care of all of the hydrating beverages (and food if there is to be a post fast feast), someone to advertise the event (through posters, local newspapers, and assemblies), someone to organize activities to take place during the fast and someone to clean up after the fast.

We agreed to meet once every week to talk about the event, give input and come up with new ideas. Next we began to make the pledge forms and information sheets (explaining the fast, rules, what it is all about, where the money goes, how to explain this to the public when fundraising, and what kind of activities were going to be happening during the fast).

We then approached local businesses for donations of hydrating beverages (and food for after). We organized a series of shifts that chaperones could sign-in for. We gave out the pledge forms with information sheets and explained everything verbally to the group. We concentrated on spreading our event by word of mouth, letting everybody in our network know exactly what was going on, and how much fun it was going to be.

We then had everyone participating in the event meet at our school at a certain time on the day of the fast. We had several booths collecting the pledge forms with donations.

Once all of the formal things were out of the way (explaining all the rules and dealing with the money) we concentrated on having a good time. We had as many activities going on as we could, including games, several movie rooms (we had approached a movie store and they kindly donated around 20 movies of all different genres for the two days), and outside sports. We felt it was very important that the students shouldn't get bored. We assigned a quiet room for people that wanted to read or sleep and let everyone else stay up and do what they wanted (as long as it was within the rules).

After the event we sent out thank-yous to everyone who helped, especially to the businesses who donated supplies. Overall, our fast was a great success and well worth the effort!