MOUNT VERNON — To mark National Hunger, Health and Homelessness Week, Nov. 8-12, Cornell College will host panel discussions on homelessness and the impact of poverty on health care, stage a hunger banquet where participants receive food based on assigned social levels, and collect canned goods for a food pantry and money for a spring break service trip.
Here is the schedule of events:
Panel on homelessness: Monday, Nov. 8, 7 p.m., Orange Carpet, The Commons. Three members of Faces of Homelessness, a Washington, D.C., speakers bureau, will share their experiences.
George Siletti spent seven years in foster care and then much of the next 20 years on the streets, battling alcoholism; now he mentors people moving from institutions to independent lives. Joann Jackson became addicted to alcohol and drugs, left her job and lost her home, was beaten up, got raped at a homeless shelter and finally was sent to a mental institution; with help from a program called New Endeavors by Women, she has found a new home and is no longer addicted to drugs and alcohol. Moses Scott lived on the streets for 13 years; now in his 50s, he lives in a subsidized apartment and has been clean of alcohol and drugs for five years.
Panel on health care: Wednesday, Nov. 10, 6 p.m., Orange Carpet, The Commons. Representatives from the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City free clinics, Mercy Medical Center and His Hand Ministries Free Medical Clinic of Cedar Rapids and a Mount Vernon school nurse will discuss the primary health needs of the poor and the services provided locally.
Hunger Banquet: Thursday, Nov. 11, 5 p.m., Harlan Dining Room, The Commons. Cornell students, faculty and staff can register for this event. They are assigned a station in life – low, middle or upper class – and given a meal based on their social level. Discussion addresses facts about worldwide hunger.
Shack-a-Thon: Friday, Nov. 12, near Allee Chapel. Cornell students will live in cardboard boxes to raise awareness of homelessness and collect donations to finance the fourth annual spring break service trip, in March to Lexington, Va., to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.
A canned food drive runs Nov. 1-12 to benefit the food pantry at Southeast Linn Community Center in Lisbon. Non-perishable food items can be dropped off at Gary’s Foods, Mount Vernon Bank and Trust, Bridge Community Bank, Cole Library and several other campus locations in Mount Vernon; the Lisbon Library; and Hill’s Bank and Trust in Mount Vernon and Lisbon.
Also on Nov. 12, Cornell students can forgo their meals in the cafeteria, and then Sodexho Dining Services will spend that amount of money on food goods for the Cedar Rapids Salvation Army and the Olivet Mission.
All events are sponsored by Cornell’s
Civic Engagement Office. For more information, call (319) 895-4003.
