1

Global Reality Meal or Rich World/Poor World Meal

Prayer, fasting, sharing goods and giving money to those in need have always been important to Christians.

Realising that all things are gifts from God, sharing time and resources is a vital part of the Christian way of life.

We live in a divided world. More than 800 million people are too poor to afford an adequate diet and 1 in 8 people

go hungry every day. Many CAFOD supporters fast out of solidarity with their brothers and sisters around the world

who go hungry every day or they arrange a rich world/poor world meal and they donate the money to CAFOD.

Why do it?

Bringing to life the inequalities in our world challenges us to do something about it. Few leave a Global Reality Meal

with full stomachs, but all leave filled with a greater understanding of the problems of global hunger and poverty

and motivated to take action.

Who do you need?

Participants- from 20 – 100!

A Master of Ceremonies or simply someone to ensure everything goes to plan.

Waiters to pamper the rich and serve their meal

What do you need?

A venue

Tickets or tokens with 1 in 8 of them marked

Food for the rich – usually a 3 course meal with wine and make sure there is plenty of it to prove the point

Food for the poor – barely enough food – rice and water or soup and bread

Chairs, tables, table cloths etc. for the rich.

Simple bench and chairs without table linen etc for the poor

Copies of the 4 stories below distributed on the tables for all to read and explore

What do you do?

Agree on a set amount for the cost of the meal – everyone pays the same.

As each participant enters the venue, they receive a ticket. Tickets appear similar, but on the back 1 in every 8 are

marked ‘poor’ and the rest are marked ‘rich’.

Tickets must be distributed randomly.

You may choose to sit all the poor people together OR you may choose to mingle them in with the ‘rich’. Whichever

way you decide, the ‘poor’ have to go and queue for their food whilst the rich are waited on.

After saying Grace, tell the group that they are now ‘acting out’ the division of the world's food resources.

We are here today because 1 in 8 people in our world go to bed hungry every night.

Just under a billion people – almost one eighth of the world’s population – do not have enough to eat.

One in five children in developing regions is underweight.

Every four seconds, a child dies from hunger or other preventable cause. That’s 22,000 children every day.

(Sources: All facts based on statistics in MDG Report 2011)

2

You may think hunger is about too many people and too little food. Not true. This rich and bountiful planet

produces enough to feed every woman, man and child on earth. It’s about power! It’s poverty, not lack of

food that is the main cause of hunger.

1/5th of the world’s population consumes 86% of the entire world’s food. The other 4/5ths get only 14%

The roots of hunger lie in inequalities in access to education, resources and power. The results are illiteracy,

poverty, war and the inability of families to grow or buy food.

Today’s meal is an example of how food and other resources are unequally distributed in the world. Each of

us has the same basic needs and it is only our circumstances – where we live, and the culture we are born

into that differ. Each person’s place is randomly determined.

As each of us walked in the door here today, we chose – at random – our lot. Look around, and you can see

that equality and balance don’t exist here.

It is important to note that no one section of this room represents a single country. Stark inequalities prevail,

both worldwide and within countries, even in the UK.

Point out to everyone the four stories of Dorcas, Emily, Fidel and Sabita and ask them to read or listen to the

individual stories.

Each story will raise questions to discuss and provide opportunities to ‘challenge’ those who are eating well and to

consider the impact of those who are eating the poor man’s meal.

Finally, invite the ‘rich’ to begin their meal and the ‘poor’ to queue up for their food.

3

Dorcas Loltolo Lives in Logorate village in Maralal, Kenya. She has seven children and also looks after her grandson as his mother died in childbirth. Dorcas’s husband was killed in a fight when men from another tribe stole their cows. “I was in agony and I thought I was going to die because I lost my husband and the cows had gone. It was very painful. The animals are so important to us because we sell them to get food and pay school and hospital fees. We entirely depend on our animals to survive.” Dorcas’s brothers gave her four goats, but despite being given food by the government, and working as a labourer to earn money, Dorcas did not always have enough to feed her family. “Sometimes we would go the whole day without eating. When you’re hungry you can’t sleep. You lie awake thinking about how to feed the children the next day. Sometimes I would have just enough to feed two children only – but I couldn’t feed only two and leave the rest to starve. The choice is too difficult.”

The community relied on each other through these difficult times, as Dorcas’s son Joseph explained: “If my neighbours don’t have enough then I have to share with them. Sharing is something that is very important. If I help my neighbours when they don’t have enough then when I don’t have enough my neighbours will help me. Everything we have – we have to share.

And as they were eating he took bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it and gave it to them. “Take it,” he said, “this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he handed it to them, and all drank from it, and he said to them, “This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, poured out for many.”

Mark 14:22–24

Questions: What strikes you about Dorcas and Joseph’s experience and what challenges you? How do you show love for your neighbour both locally and globally? Is your parish/group a “sharing community” like Dorcas’s? If not, what could you do to change it?

4

Emily Mbithuka Lives in Kathithu village, in Kitui, Kenya with her husband and their five children. She has been given seeds and training to grow her own crops, but she struggles to get a fair price. The amount she produces is too small for larger traders to travel the bumpy road to her farm. So she sells to shopkeepers who then sell her produce on at triple the price. “I’ve made a plan of trying to plant more vegetables to increase my income to support my family. I hope that when the vegetables mature, my family will eat well and they won’t have to skip meals. It will also mean that the children don’t have to miss school because we can pay the school fees. It’s difficult because the shopkeepers have control of the price. It’s not good because we don’t have an option of where to take our produce. It’s like we’re being cheated. I feel exploited. It’s unfair. I’d like people to come here to buy my crop. It would be good to get people to come here.”

When evening came, the disciples went to him and said, “This is a lonely place, and time has slipped by; so send the people away, and they can go to the villages to buy themselves some food.” Jesus replied, “There is no need for them to go: give them something to eat yourselves.” But they answered, “All we have with us is five loaves and two fish.” So he said, “Bring them here to me.” He gave orders that the people were to sit down on the grass; then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing. And breaking the loaves he handed them to his disciples, who gave them to the crowds. They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected the scraps left over, twelve baskets full. Now about five thousand men had eaten, to say nothing of women and children.

Matthew 14: 15–21

Questions: What strikes you about Emily’s experience? How could Emily change her situation? Who else could help Emily to change her situation and have enough food for her family – for example, local government, businesses, international community, you? What could they/you do?

5

Fidel Ramos

Traditionally farmers like Fidel Ramos in El Salvador have shared and saved seed, sowing different varieties to suit different conditions and climates. “I believe strongly we shouldn’t let our native seeds disappear, we should value what is ours,” he says. “We share seeds between different communities, so that we can grow more varieties of crops.” This means if one type fails, all is not lost. But nearly 70 per cent of the global seed market is controlled by just ten companies, whose focus is on maximising shareholder profit. Some governments and companies urge small-scale farmers to buy hybrid or GM patented seeds which offer a higher yield. However farmers may then have to buy new seeds every year and often herbicides or pesticides too. This can reduce the variety of seeds available and weaken local knowledge and control over food.

There was a rich man who used to dress in purple andfine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there used to lie a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with what fell from the rich man’s table. Even dogs came and licked his sores. Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels into Abraham’s embrace. The rich man also died and was buried. In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus in his embrace. So he cried out, “Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.” Abraham said, “My son, remember that during your life you had your fill of good things, just as Lazarus his fill of bad. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony. But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to prevent those who want to cross from our side to yours or from your side to ours.” So he said, “Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father’s house, since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to this place of torment too.” Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them.” The rich man replied, “Ah no, father Abraham, but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent.” Then Abraham said to him, “If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.”

Luke 16:19–31

Questions:

What strikes you about Fidel’s experience? What challenges you? Do you grow any of your own food? Do you buy seeds or keep them from the year before? Why would farmers like Fidel be tempted to buy commercially produced seeds?

6

Sabita

In Sabita’s village, it’s hard to grow enough to eat and sell when crops are frequently washed away by heavy rains and sea water flooding. Sabita is the leader of a women’s group where Caritas Bangladesh, supported by CAFOD, has shared simple solutions like raising vegetable beds a metre or more above the ground, and using home-made compost to improve the salty soil. “This plot has made a big difference to my family. It’s improved our diet and given us extra income,” says Sabita. What’s more the group has enabled these rural women to be heard by government, and contribute to policies which help people prepare for disasters. “Women are learning more than ever about the impact of climate change on our lives and how we can be better prepared for disaster,” she continues. “I am happy to help others through this committee

God spoke as follows to Noah and his sons, “I am now establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants to come, and with every living creature that was with you: birds, cattle and every wild animal with you; everything that came out of the ark, every living thing on earth. And I shall maintain my covenant with you: that never again shall all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth.” “And this,” God said, “is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I shall recall the covenant between myself and you and every living creature, in a word all living things, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all living things. When the bow is in the clouds I shall see it and call to mind the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth,that is all living things.”

Genesis 9:8–16

Questions: What strikes you about Sabita’s experience? What challenges you? What do you think are the likely effects of climate change on poor communities?