Carl Scott, left, and Justin Ferreira, both Grade 12 students at Osoyoos Secondary School, dig in to their rice and lentils after drawing “third class” ballots at the Global Awareness Club’s lottery dinner on the evening of May 21. Photo by Karen Knelsen
OSOYOOS TIMES-May 27, 2009
By Karen Knelsen
Osoyoos Times
It’s not often a group of people are served a first-class dinner, complete with candlelight and flowers, and they hesitate to start their meal.
But on May 21 in the main hall of Osoyoos Secondary School, as Deb Douglas, Shinder Kambo and Jenna Viera were served a hot, aromatic meal donated by the Wildfire Grill, it took them a while to pick up their cutlery and dig in.
Around them sat about 50 other Osoyoos residents, most of them on the floor in bare feet, some of them standing or sitting at a long table for communal eating.
Everybody paid $5 for their tickets, but nobody was sure about how well they were going to eat until they pulled a ballot from a bag as they arrived for the dinner.
All of the attendees were waiting for their own meals as they watched Douglas, Kambo and Viera receive the gourmet food at their table.
“I don’t want to eat it, I feel bad,” said Viera, a Grade 8 student at OSS.
Douglas agreed.
“We didn’t even want to start eating because we felt bad,” she said.
The three women were lucky enough to draw first class ballots at the OSS Global Awareness Club’s lottery dinner, an exercise that attempted to put into perspective the way the world’s wealth is spread out.
Only 10 per cent of the global population falls into the first class category, while 30 per cent are considered middle class and 60 per cent are living in the poverty range.
“It should be equal. But it’s not,” Kambo said.
At the other end of the spectrum, Laurie Kenzie said she was comfortable sitting barefoot on the gym mats provided for people who drew the “third class” ballots.
She stood in line with the majority of people in attendance, barefoot, while she waited for students from the club to portion out rice and lentils onto her plate, and then sat on the floor mat to eat with the biodegradable wooden cutlery she’d been given.
“I’d rather be down here than all fancy over there,” Kenzie said.
And she ate all of the rice and lentils she’d received.
Laurel Turner drew a middle class ballot, and though she wasn’t sitting at the fancy first class table, she wasn’t on the floor, either.
“It’s kind of sad,” she said after taking her seat on the bench connected to the communal eating table. “It is sad, you feel like you want to share with them.”
The middle class group also had to stand in line, but when it came time to load up their plates, they were presented with more variety than rice and lentils.
“We ate very well,” Turner said. “It was sort of a well-balanced meal.”
Buy-Low Foods provided deli trays with meats, cheese and vegetables as well as buns for the middle class dinner.
Kailey Gilbert, a Grade 8 club member, said she was pleased with the turnout.
Club members made 50 tickets for the dinner and they sold out and had to sell extra tickets.
“Like two days ago we had only 20 tickets sold,” Gilbert said. “And then we only had a day and we sold more than we needed and then we still had people come and buy them at the door.”
Thomas Hilario, a Grade 12 student and club member, summed up the evening in some opening comments.
“Fill your belly with food, fill your mind with knowledge, and fill your heart with empathy,” he said.
Proceeds from the event went to the Osoyoos Food Bank as well as the Vancouver-based global outreach groups Free the Children and Me to We.
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