By Abigail Loop
Staff Writer
Students involved in Baylor’s Global Community Living Center have come up with a new fundraiser to raise hunger and cultural awareness in the community by supporting a local charity.
Plates for Poverty, an event in which students will be able to purchase a plate of food, will serve as a fundraiser to support Mission Waco.
Mexico City, Mexico senior Regina Martinez, co-director of Plates for Poverty, said the exact date for the event is undetermined, but it will take place in November.
Colorado Springs, Colo. freshman Brian King, a director for the event, said the idea for the event came from looking at world food programs for their philanthropy.
Students apart of the living center decided on a charity by taking a vote. King said the main concern was supporting a charity that helped with food and health concerns in the community. The living center chose Mission Waco.
“We looked at sites like freerice.com,” King said. The website has several quizzes, and donates ten grams of rice to the World Food Programme, every time the player answers a question correctly.
Jimmy Dorrell, executive director of Mission Waco, expressed his gratitude for the event and said he thinks the fundraiser is a great way to raise awareness.
“I think it’s very exciting,” Dorrell said. “This kind of creativity and initiative to do something about poverty is great news. The proceeds will go to good use for our work.”
Student organizers of the event plan to set up tables outside Memorial Dining Hall and Waco Hall this upcoming month to sell tickets for the event.
A ticket will buy a plate of food consisting of rice and beans. King said they are looking to charge $5 for a plate. Students will then be able to pick up their plate of food at Minglewood Bowl by Brooks Flats.
Martinez said the purpose of serving rice and beans was not only to raise awareness to hunger, but bring cultural awareness as well.
“We realized that rice is a universal and staple food that aid organizations give out and it’s cheap and simple to make. So we decided to raise awareness through having an event that gave out rice and beans,” King said.
Martinez and King both said they are hoping the new fundraiser will open up the eyes of Baylor students and show how food is hard to come by for some people in the global community.
“I’ve had personal experience seeing people in the dining hall throwing away massive amounts of food,” Martinez said. “It’s sad to see how a lot of people do this.”
King agreed with Martinez and said this will give students a time to think about their food options and be grateful.
“It’ll be an opportunity to reflect on the fact that not everyone has a plethora of food options,” he said.
The directors of the event said students should be on the lookout for an upcoming notice on the fundraiser and that an email will soon be going out in the upcoming weeks.
