Hunger
Supplementary Activities

Third World Banquet:
Tools: Goldfish crackers
Directions: Divide your group of kids into the following subgroups:
20% make up the poorest
60% make up those who have enough
20% make up the richest
Place the kids into each group by assigning them tickets from the following groups: high-income, middle-income and low-income. Give each child a card that explains their life in the group to which they’ve been assigned. Give only 1 goldfish to the low-income group, 7 goldfish to the middle-income group and 20 goldfish to the high-income group. Ask your kids how this makes them feel. Allow time for conversations, reactions and problem solving. Before anyone gets to eat the goldfish, ask your kids to solve their food unfairness.
(Adapted from “Hunger Education Activities that Work” from Church World Service)
 

Shrinking Spaces
Tools: Tablecloth or tarp
Directions: Have all your kids stand on the cloth. Explain that they are the world’s population—all the people of the world. The cloth represents all the world’s resources. Systematically, reduce the available resources by folding a corner of the cloth over. Each time, the children must adjust to fit into a smaller space. Encourage them to think creatively about how they can adjust the space to keep all people on the cloth as it shrinks. Cooperation is required. Continue to reduce the space until it just isn’t possible for all the children to remain on.

Involve your kids in a discussion about how it felt as the cloth shrank in size. What were some creative ways they worked to make space? How did it feel to work together as a group? How would they feel if this were really happening to them—if their food, water and living space were shrinking? What could they do to help other people who are experiencing this squeezing out?
 

What’s the Tune We March to?
Tools: Chairs, music
Directions: To begin, play a traditional game of musical chairs—music plays, when it stops everyone scrambles for a chair, the person left without a chair is out of the game and a chair is removed. Now, play the game again, except this time no one is eliminated from the game, only chairs are removed. More and more people must cooperate to be able to sit on fewer and fewer chairs. Finally the whole group must find a way to sit on only one chair. Some pretty interesting combinations can result, although safety is of primary importance.

After both games are played, ask your kids to think about how playing each game was different. How did it feel rushing to beat everyone else playing the first game? How did the cooperation involved in the second game feel? Have your kids write a paragraph about which style of game they enjoyed more.
(Adapted from “Hunger Education Activities that Work” from Church World Service)