Empty Bowls/Hunger Banquet
The Revere MA. High School “Empty Bowls/Hunger Banquet” was held on Friday, May 9th, 2014. I want to write so much about it to all of you. It was really a good time. Art teacher June Krinsky Rudder, along with the School Staff , Cheryl Cole, and Curtis Chambers of Aramark, and the Revere Public School Dining Services as well as the Revere High School Students and members of the community volunteered their time for a nice event. I was one of three guest speakers Project Bread, First Congregational Church of Revere Food Pantry and Children are Angels from Heaven.
It was a very different kind of a night with dinner served to everyone. The dinners were arranged how people of the world might eat according to your income Rich to Poor.
When you bought a ticket in the envelope it came with a card that said if you were to eat in the wealthy section, Middle Class or Poor section.. This was all at random !
The wealthy section was about 10 % of the people who were at the banquet. They ate a great meal of Roast Beef at a table with all the fixings including desert and table clothes on the tables. It was all served by wait staff. It was real fancy!
The Middle class section of people about 30% of the people who were at the Banquet got to eat chicken, pasta and broccoli served buffet style at a basic long table.
The poor class of people at the banquet 60% sat on the floor and had rice to eat with their hands.
The numbers of people in each class are based on the world statistics.
My wife Patty looked inside each envelope for her and I, we were to sit in the poor section on the floor eating rice. We had lots of company on the floor and made some good friends.
This was the sad part and I know this for a fact. We ate one meal sitting on the floor for one hour only during dinner. People who are poor who live on the street and sit on the sidewalk every day, for every meal they eat that is If there is something to eat.
When it was time for me to speak, I told everyone that we have done many projects over the years and that I would like to tell them about just a few of them. I told everyone that I just bounce like a ball, from project to project. One project ends one project begins!
I had brought 8 Poster Boards with me to show many photos of different projects that all of us have done over the years. Everyone loved looking at everything and had many questions. The school also had 3 laptop computers set up. One of them was hooked up to a big overhead external screen to watch some of the videos that were made of our Angels from Heaven projects, like making playgrounds and toilets for children.
I talked for about 20 minutes and had so much more to tell, but I did not want to overwhelm people and I felt I had said enough. I ended my talk by saying this. Children are Angels from Heaven has been so successful because we are accountable and responsible for everything that we do. I do not always need money and donations what I need first before anything, is the love in your heart.
When I finished speaking, the art department at the High School had made and donated ceramic bowls to give one to each person who attended the banquet to take home with them. The bowls were all beautiful! They were given out to be a reminder of all the Empty Bowls in the world every day.
I’m sure when people went home and put their head on the pillow to go to sleep, they thought about the banquet and how nice it was, along with learning something about the world we live in. It was really a nice night for everyone.
When the receipts were all counted By June Krinsky Rudder and the Revere High School, Children are Angels from Heaven was given $600 from the School and $110 in additional donations from people who attended the event, all to be used for a future project for children.
