2008 Woodie Awards
National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week: A Growing Worldly and Local Epidemic
Theodora Guliadis
Issue date: 11/12/04 Section: Arts & Features
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Many people take for granted the many blessings that life has bestowed upon them, such as the gift of food and shelter. This realization dawns on me every time I look at the heaps of uneaten food gone to waste at Frank, the Edge and the Coop. Some people are not as fortunate as the average Colgate student; they do not have the opportunity of enjoying a warm, fulfilling meal in a comfortable environment that shields them from the harsh, icy breath of winter. It is hard for most Colgate students to consider the situation of those in need, especially since we have intense scholastic workloads, extracurricular activities and are on a pretty isolated campus far from many devastating realities.
Personally, it never occurred to me that there was more beyond the lovely village of Hamilton and the aesthetically pleasing Colgate campus until I trekked three miles past campus. With each step that I took my heart plummeted as my eyes absorbed the melancholy sights of houses in desperate need of repair, tiny broken down shacks and isolated fields. Even though the city is far away and either the sight of homeless people shivering beneath the doorway of a vacated building or the sight of poor souls asking for loose change in order to be able to buy a morsel to eat is absent, this does not mean that the issues of homelessness and hunger cease to exist. In fact, they are all around us, even in the communities surrounding Colgate University.
The week of November 14 is National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Thanks to Colgate senior, Bianca Verrilli, a plethora of special events are already underway to educate students on these escalating issues and to show students ways in which they can make a difference. These scheduled events include a panel of speakers from the Community Action Program for Madison County (whose website is capmadco.org.) The Community Action Program is an "umbrella" organization that runs soup kitchens in Madison County and assists people who cannot afford proper nourishment. On Thursday, there will be a dinner that will include a meal of bread to symbolize the rising numbers of impoverished and homeless people throughout the nation, and games and prizes will be included in this event.
Personally, it never occurred to me that there was more beyond the lovely village of Hamilton and the aesthetically pleasing Colgate campus until I trekked three miles past campus. With each step that I took my heart plummeted as my eyes absorbed the melancholy sights of houses in desperate need of repair, tiny broken down shacks and isolated fields. Even though the city is far away and either the sight of homeless people shivering beneath the doorway of a vacated building or the sight of poor souls asking for loose change in order to be able to buy a morsel to eat is absent, this does not mean that the issues of homelessness and hunger cease to exist. In fact, they are all around us, even in the communities surrounding Colgate University.
The week of November 14 is National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Thanks to Colgate senior, Bianca Verrilli, a plethora of special events are already underway to educate students on these escalating issues and to show students ways in which they can make a difference. These scheduled events include a panel of speakers from the Community Action Program for Madison County (whose website is capmadco.org.) The Community Action Program is an "umbrella" organization that runs soup kitchens in Madison County and assists people who cannot afford proper nourishment. On Thursday, there will be a dinner that will include a meal of bread to symbolize the rising numbers of impoverished and homeless people throughout the nation, and games and prizes will be included in this event.