How to Plan a Hunger Banquet
Oxfam, an international organization devoted to raising awareness about and eliminating world hunger, developed the concept of the Hunger Banquet as a way to raise awareness and money to combat world hunger. An Oxfam Hunger Banquet dramatically illustrates how unequally the world's food resources are divided by arbitrarily dividing your guests into low, middle and high income diners, and serving each a meal appropriate to their "income level." Hosting a successful and effective Hunger Banquet takes significant planning and organization.
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Instructions
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Organizing Event Planners
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Recruit and organize volunteers. Both Oxfam America and Oxfam Canada suggest organizing volunteers into three committees--one to take charge of publicity, one to deal with the logistics of fund-raising and hosting the Hunger Banquet and one to plan and arrange the program for the event night.
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Choose a date for your Hunger Banquet. Be sure to give your committees enough lead time to secure an event venue, create buzz about the event and carry out all the logistics needed to run a successful fund-raising banquet. Oxfam's planning timelines for Hunger Banquets start at five to eight weeks before the date of the event.
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Register your event with Oxfam America and take advantage of the free planning kits and tools offered on its website.
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Create an overall project plan that includes major tasks to be accomplished by each of the three committees. A project plan and schedule will help keep all of your team members accountable by placing deadlines on the accomplishment of various tasks.
Planning the Event
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Choose an event venue and make reservations. The Logistics Committee should check with local universities, hospitals and other public buildings to see if they can get a discounted rate for your Hunger Banquet.
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Solicit cash, food and service donations. If possible, find a sponsor to foot the bill for the banquet itself.
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Line up speakers and entertainment for the Hunger Banquet through the Planning Committee.
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Plan the menu for the banquet. At a typical Hunger Banquet, 15 percent of the guests will be served a gourmet meal with all the trimmings and 35 percent will be served a filling meal of rice and beans. The remaining 50 percent of the guests will eat plain rice and water, generally sitting on the floor.
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Start creating a buzz about the upcoming Hunger Banquet. About a month before the big day, contact local newspapers and columnists to do stories about world hunger and your organization's upcoming event. Set up interviews with local radio hosts in the two weeks before the event. Ask local businesses to post fliers and posters about the banquet.
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Take advantage of online media to boost the buzz about your Hunger Banquet. Tap into social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter to create excitement and increase your publicity reach without increasing your budget.
Final Two Weeks Before Banquet
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Finalize the menus with your caterer or volunteers.
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Make tickets for the Hunger Banquet. There should be three levels of tickets - high income, middle income and low income. The three levels are typically distributed randomly to attendees.
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Do a run-through of the evening's program to make sure that it will all run smoothly on the night of the event. Check any equipment that will be needed for presentations, cooking and serving.
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Ramp up publicity in the week before the Hunger Banquet. Send out invitations through social media tools and email and remind local media celebrities about your event. Do not forget to get your banquet listed on any local calendars.
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Do a last-minute check with all committee members to be sure that they have accomplished their tasks and are prepared for the big night.
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Tips & Warnings
A local restaurant or caterer may be delighted to contribute the meals and the service in return for the good publicity engendered by the event.
