Event for poverty awareness brings in thousands of dollars

There are more than one billion people living below the poverty line world wide, which means they are earning less than one dollar a day. More than 800 million are undernourished as a result. This decreases their standard of living, and therefore their well-being. \nThese statements were written on cards placed on tables for the Shalom Community Center's third Annual Hunger Banquet, which raised about $3,500 for the charity Thursday. Joel Rekas, the executive director of Shalom Community Center, said he wanted people to leave feeling different about poverty, a goal he felt was accomplished through the very "powerful" play.\nThe event consisted of a performance from the Bloomington Playwrights Project and a food simulated economic class model. As people entered, they were asked to choose from a hat pieces of paper that read "Lower Class," "Middle Class" or "Upper Class." Once their class was established, they had to find their corresponding tables.\nThe tables were set up according to class. The upper class table was circular and covered with a nice tablecloth. People who sat there drank iced tea and ate a chicken meal with pasta and bread on the side, plus a choice of many elaborate cakes, pies, brownies and cookies for dessert. Their plates were china and they used real silverware. \nThe middle class had un-clothed circular tables with big bags of Kroger brand potato chips in the middle. They were served ham or turkey sandwiches. The lower class area was set up like a soup kitchen, with long, rectangular tables. They were served small bowls of vegetable soup and slices of Wonder Bread. Water without ice cubes was served to drink. People sat among strangers and were encouraged to talk about class differences, especially poverty.\nMany senior citizens were in attendance, among many middle-aged people who brought their young children along. Tickets were $20, though a select few impoverished people were given tickets. Among the impoverished was a Bloomington resident, Abraham D. Moralas III. He attended the event with his son through donated tickets from Shalom Community Center and sat at the upper class table. \nHe came to Bloomington from Lafayette more than a year ago.\n"I came to Bloomington to try it out and have the chance to have something better," said Moralas, who frequents the Shalom Center. "My son was born in Lafayette, Indiana, and it was kind of bad up there."\nMuch of the conversation among attendants centered around the poverty rate in Monroe County, the highest in Indiana.\n"Students put unreal pressures on the housing market," Bloomington resident Neil Alberson said. He sat at an upper class table. "Four or five students move into one house and pay a few hundred dollars each, while a family supported by one person can't afford that."\nOthers blamed the University.\n"This town caters to college community and forgets about residents," John Meadlo, a Bloomington resident and volunteer at the Shalom Community Center, said.\nAfter the meal, the Bloomington Playwrights Project performed "The Woman on Sixth Street," a play that portrayed homeless life in Bloomington. The playwright, Karen Kurfirst, wrote the play from interviews with a homeless woman in Bloomington.\nRekas was smiling at the event's end. About 200 people attended the event, the highest turnout so far.\n"We are very pleased with the turnout," he said.