By April 28, 2004
About 135 people came to the annual Ithaca Hunger Banquet Monday night at 6 p.m. at the Terrace Restaurant to promote hunger awareness. The event was sponsored by the Cornell Public Service Center, HADM490: Housing and Feeding the Homeless and the Cornell Coalition for the Homeless. Over $900 was raised from tickets and donations and will be donated to the Food Bank of the Southern Tier. Each person received an envelope and was randomly assigned an identity and situation, ranging from drug rehabilitation to college student, to early retirement from an internet start-up company. The envelope and place setting determined the attendee’s class and meal that they would be served. Low-income people ate rice and beans off of paper plates with plastic utensils. People assigned middle-income identities consumed a small portion of rice, chicken and collard greens. High-income participants enjoyed steak, rice, broccoli and rolls. “The hunger banquet is a metaphor for how food and other resources are distributed in our country and state,” said Jessica Garay ’04, a main event coordinator with Liza Steinfeld ’05. HADM490 requires 40 to 60 hours of community service. Students can help out with the hunger banquet to fulfill part of this requirement. “The banquet brings awareness of poverty and hunger to students,” said Prof. Therese O’Connor, hotel administration. She also said that the money raised from the banquet stays in the community. Encouraging Discourse There was a discussion leader at each table who passed around a list of questions for people to ask and discuss, including why people came to the banquet, first exposure to hunger, involvement in service activities and ideas for ending the cycle of hunger and poverty. Some of the people who received steak or chicken offered to share their meal with participants that had rice and beans. “It was really nice to have the discussions at the tables. Change is made through conversations and dialogue, not through mass media,” said Brit Holmberg ’01, Operation Frontline coordinator for the Food Bank of the Southern Tier. He said that the poverty rate in Tompkins Country is 15 percent. The Operation Frontline program provides free six-week courses where local volunteer chefs teach low-income individuals how to cook. Discussion Over Dessert Everyone received the same dessert of chocolate chip cookies and chocolate-dipped strawberries while the key-note speaker, Bich Ha Pham, executive director of the Hunger Action Network of New York State, began to discuss the program. According to Pham, “over 900,000 New Yorkers a week turn to emergency food programs.” She stressed that average Americans support food programs, but that hunger is not as much of a priority in politics. She also said that President George W. Bush wants to cut funding for community nutrition programs. “I thought it was a great opportunity to talk about the issues of hunger, especially hunger locally,” said Matt Gewolb ’04. Donations and Volunteers All of the food was donated by the Statler Hotel and the servers were students in the hotel school. “It’s a good way for students to get thinking about the community they live in,” said Joyce Munchan ’96, student programs advisor of the Public Service Center. Archived article by Vanessa HoffmanSun Staff Writer
By April 28, 2004
The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs worked with the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Association, and the Multicultural Greek Letter Council to host the 17th Annual Greek Awards Ceremony on Sunday in the Memorial Room of the Straight. Greek student leaders, faculty, alumni and administration were in attendance to honor the Greek system’s achievements from this past year. The ceremony was hosted by Kimberly Karman ’05, vice-president of communications for the Panhellenic Association and sister of Alpha Chi Omega Sorority, and Devan Musser ’05, executive vice-president of the Interfraternity Council and brother of Sigma Pi Fraternity. “The purpose of the Greek Awards is to recognize and honor specific individuals and chapters within the Greek system that have really done a great job throughout the year,” Karman said. Award winners included Paul El-Meouchy ’04 of Sigma Pi, who won the Edwin Fitzpatrick Award for Outstanding IFC Man, Amesika Bediako ’04 of Sigma Gamma Rho, who won the Robert L. Harris Award for Outstanding MGLC Leader and Meghan Dubyak ’04 of Alpha Phi, who won the Janeice Bacon Oblak Award for Outstanding Panhellenic Woman. “The Greek system at Cornell does so many wonderful things. Greeks make up approximately one third of the population at Cornell and this ceremony highlighted our achievements in all areas of excellence,” Karman said. This year, the Cornell Greek community volunteered over 30,000 hours of community service and raised over $250,000 for various philanthropies in the Ithaca community and around the world. John S. Dyson ’65, former chair of Mayor Rudolph Guiliani’s Council of Economic Advisors and the New York Power Authority, former N.Y. commissioner of commerce and creator of the “I Love New York” campaign, and alumnus of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity spoke at the ceremony. Dyson has donated over $3 million in scholarship funds to members of the Greek community. He spoke about his pride and enthusiasm for the Cornell Greek system and helped to distribute awards. “The outstanding work the [Greek leaders] do within their chapter, the campus and the outside community deserves recognition and praise,” Musser added. Musser explained, “Nominees for each award were first recognized, then a brief description of the award was given, followed by the announcement of the award recipient along with some information about him or her.” Over 140 chapter evaluations were graded by the committee and were used to determine the winning chapters. Twelve outstanding chapters were presented with awards. These chapters included Alpha Omicron Pi Sorority, Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Kappa Delta Sorority, Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity, Lambda Pi Chi Sorority, Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity, Pi Beta Phi Sorority, Pi Delta Psi Fraternity, Psi Upsilon Fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity and Sigma Pi Fraternity. President Justin Redd ’05 of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity accepted a special donation gift in honor of George Boiardi ’04, who passed away this year. Alpha Chi Omega President Amanda Stein attended the ceremony in order to receive the award for highest sorority GPA for Fall 2003. Stein said, “This was actually my first time going to Greek Awards since this is my first semester as president. I think it is important because it proves that the greek System is more than just a group of partiers.” “The Greek system is made up of a lot of intelligent, hard-working students. The ceremony was a way for the campus to recognize that,” Stein said. Archived article by Allison MarkowitzSun Staff Writer