Teens Learn About Hunger Through Fasting Stomachs Grumble, But City Teenagers Stick To Pledge To Not Eat For 30 Hours

Their eyelids drooped. They slouched in their chairs, stomachs grumbling.

Saturday afternoon, with four hours to go in a 30-hour fast, two dozen Spokane teenagers were sticking to their pledge to raise money and awareness to fight world hunger. But they admitted it was getting hard to concentrate.

The group at Grace Baptist Church joined about 1,500 Spokane-area teens and 500,000 around the country in experiencing the stomach pangs and glazed eyes of hunger.

The “30-hour Famine” was coordinated by World Vision, a Christian group that last year raised $5.2 million to help the poor. The organization supports 4,500 anti-hunger projects in 101 countries, and provides educational materials on what youths can do to help.

Some of the Spokane middle and high school students who joined the mass fast wisecracked about scarfing down a Big Mac, pizza or chocolate ice cream when they were done. The jokes didn’t get many laughs.

“I am so mad!” wrote 12-year-old Austin Harpster of Finch Elementary, in a letter urging President Clinton to tackle world hunger - part of a group exercise.

“I mean, why don’t we do something about this? This is so dumb. Why are we sitting around on our butts and not doing anything?”

Actually, they were doing something.

They stacked cans and boxes into eight rows of donated nonperishable food. Signs in front listed destinations - from Zimbabwe to Sudan, Uganda to the Philippines.

And they got a taste of what it’s like to face starvation through role-playing.

In one exercise based on strife in Uganda, the students played the part of village leaders who could choose to send children to work for a plantation in order to earn money for food. But they also might be overworked and come home even hungrier.

Or, they could stay in their village and leave them to eventually die.

There were no right answers.

“We take so much for granted, and we still demand more,” said 15-year-old Stephanie Loman, who attends Rogers High School. “This really makes you think about things.”

That’s exactly what youth minister Larry Harpster was hoping for.

In the three years he’s organized the event, Harpster has held a banquet at Grace Baptist for those who endure the fast.

This year, Harpster took the lesson further. He gathered about 90 nickels and scattered them around the church. Then he offered a reward to whoever found the most.

He didn’t tell them the nickels would be used to buy food. With a couple of nickels, they could buy a tiny cup of rice, maybe topped with a little peanut sauce. In some parts of famine-stricken Africa, that’s what children would splurge on.

Harpster hopes the indelible lessons of fasting show the youths that hunger is a global killer.

“If everyone knew hunger, do you think they’d be reluctant to give?” he asked.

, DataTimes