Global Reality Meal or Rich World/Poor World Meal
Prayer, fasting, sharing goods and giving money to those in need have always been important to Christians.
Realising that all things are gifts from God, sharing time and resources is a vital part of the Christian way of life.
We live in a divided world. More than 800 million people are too poor to afford an adequate diet and 1 in 8 people
go hungry every day. Many CAFOD supporters fast out of solidarity with their brothers and sisters around the world
who go hungry every day or they arrange a rich world/poor world meal and they donate the money to CAFOD.
Why do it?
Bringing to life the inequalities in our world challenges us to do something about it. Few leave a Global Reality Meal
with full stomachs, but all leave filled with a greater understanding of the problems of global hunger and poverty
and motivated to take action.
Who do you need?
 Participants- from 20 – 100!
 A Master of Ceremonies or simply someone to ensure everything goes to plan.
 Waiters to pamper the rich and serve their meal
What do you need?
 A venue
 Tickets or tokens with 1 in 8 of them marked
 Food for the rich – usually a 3 course meal with wine and make sure there is plenty of it to prove the point
 Food for the poor – barely enough food – rice and water or soup and bread
 Chairs, tables, table cloths etc. for the rich.
 Simple bench and chairs without table linen etc for the poor
 Copies of the 4 stories below distributed on the tables for all to read and explore
What do you do?
Agree on a set amount for the cost of the meal – everyone pays the same.
As each participant enters the venue, they receive a ticket. Tickets appear similar, but on the back 1 in every 8 are
marked ‘poor’ and the rest are marked ‘rich’.
Tickets must be distributed randomly.
You may choose to sit all the poor people together OR you may choose to mingle them in with the ‘rich’. Whichever
way you decide, the ‘poor’ have to go and queue for their food whilst the rich are waited on.
After saying Grace, tell the group that they are now ‘acting out’ the division of the world's food resources.
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1
We are here today because 1 in 8 people in our world go to bed hungry every night.
Just under a billion people – almost one eighth of the world’s population – do not have enough to eat.
One in five children in developing regions is underweight.
Every four seconds, a child dies from hunger or other preventable cause. That’s 22,000 children every day.
(Sources: All facts based on statistics in MDG Report 2011)
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You may think hunger is about too many people and too little food. Not true. This rich and bountiful planet
produces enough to feed every woman, man and child on earth. It’s about power! It’s poverty, not lack of
food that is the main cause of hunger.
1/5th of the world’s population consumes 86% of the entire world’s food. The other 4/5ths get only 14%
The roots of hunger lie in inequalities in access to education, resources and power. The results are illiteracy,
poverty, war and the inability of families to grow or buy food.
Today’s meal is an example of how food and other resources are unequally distributed in the world. Each of
us has the same basic needs and it is only our circumstances – where we live, and the culture we are born
into that differ. Each person’s place is randomly determined.
As each of us walked in the door here today, we chose – at random – our lot. Look around, and you can see
that equality and balance don’t exist here.
It is important to note that no one section of this room represents a single country. Stark inequalities prevail,
both worldwide and within countries, even in the UK.
Point out to everyone the four stories of Dorcas, Emily, Fidel and Sabita and ask them to read or listen to the
individual stories.
Each story will raise questions to discuss and provide opportunities to ‘challenge’ those who are eating well and to
consider the impact of those who are eating the poor man’s meal.
Finally, invite the ‘rich’ to begin their meal and the ‘poor’ to queue up for their food.
2
Dorcas Loltolo
Lives in Logorate village in Maralal, Kenya. She has seven children and also looks after her grandson as his
mother died in childbirth. Dorcas’s husband was killed in a fight when men from another tribe stole their
cows. “I was in agony and I thought I was going to die because I lost my husband and the cows had gone. It
was very painful. The animals are so important to us because we sell them to get food and pay school and
hospital fees. We entirely depend on our animals to survive.”
Dorcas’s brothers gave her four goats, but despite being given food by the government, and working as a
labourer to earn money, Dorcas did not always have enough to feed her family.
“Sometimes we would go the whole day without eating. When you’re hungry you can’t sleep. You lie awake
thinking about how to feed the children the next day. Sometimes I would have just enough to feed two
children only – but I couldn’t feed only two and leave the rest to starve. The choice is too difficult.”
The community relied on each other through these difficult times, as Dorcas’s son Joseph explained:
“If my neighbours don’t have enough then I have to share with them. Sharing is something that is very
important. If I help my neighbours when they don’t have enough then when I don’t have enough my
neighbours will help me. Everything we have – we have to share.
And as they were eating he took
bread, and when he had said the
blessing he broke it and gave it to
them.
“Take it,” he said, “this is my
body.” Then he took a cup, and
when he had given thanks he
handed it to them, and all drank
from it, and he said to them, “This
is my blood, the blood of the
covenant, poured out for many.”
Mark 14:22–24
Questions:
What strikes you about Dorcas and Joseph’s experience and what challenges you?
How do you show love for your neighbour both locally and globally?
Is your parish/group a “sharing community” like Dorcas’s? If not, what could you do to change it?
3
Emily Mbithuka
Lives in Kathithu village, in Kitui, Kenya with her husband and their five children. She has been given seeds
and training to grow her own crops, but she struggles to get a fair price. The amount she produces is too
small for larger traders to travel the bumpy road to her farm. So she sells to shopkeepers who then sell her
produce on at triple
the price.
“I’ve made a plan of trying to plant more vegetables to increase my income to support my family. I hope
that when the vegetables mature, my family will eat well and they won’t have to skip meals. It will also
mean that the children don’t have to miss school because we can pay the school fees. It’s difficult because
the shopkeepers have control of the price. It’s not good because we don’t have an option of where to take
our produce. It’s like we’re being cheated. I feel exploited. It’s unfair. I’d like people to come here to buy my
crop. It would be good to get people to come here.”
When evening came, the disciples went to
him and said,
“This is a lonely place, and time has slipped
by; so send the people away, and they can
go to the villages to buy themselves some
food.” Jesus replied,
“There is no need for them to go: give
them something to eat yourselves.”
But they answered,
“All we have with us is five loaves and two
fish.” So he said, “Bring them here to me.”
Questions:
What strikes you about Emily’s experience?
How could Emily change her situation?
Who else could help Emily to change her situation and
have enough food for her family – for example, local
government, businesses, international community,
you?
4 What could they/you do?
He gave orders that the people were to sit
down on the grass; then he took the five
loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to
heaven and said the blessing. And breaking
the loaves he handed them to his disciples,
who gave them to the crowds.
They all ate as much as they wanted, and
they collected the scraps left over, twelve
baskets full. Now about five thousand men
had eaten, to say nothing of women and
children.
Matthew 14: 15–21
Fidel Ramos
Traditionally farmers like Fidel Ramos in El Salvador have shared and saved seed, sowing different varieties
to suit different conditions and climates. “I believe strongly we shouldn’t let our native seeds disappear, we
should value what is ours,” he says. “We share seeds between different communities, so that we can grow
more varieties of crops.” This means if one type fails, all is not lost. But nearly 70 per cent of the global
seed market is controlled by just ten companies, whose focus is on maximising shareholder profit. Some
governments and companies urge small-scale farmers to buy hybrid or GM patented seeds which offer a
higher yield. However farmers may then have to buy new
seeds every year and often herbicides or pesticides too. This can reduce the variety of seeds available and
weaken local knowledge and control over food.
There was a rich man who used to dress in
purple andfine linen and feast magnificently
every day. And at his gate there used to lie a
poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores,
who longed to fill himself with what fell from the
rich man’s table. Even dogs came and licked
his sores. Now it happened that the poor man
died and was carried away by the angels into
Abraham’s embrace. The rich man also died
and was buried. In his torment in Hades he
looked up and saw Abraham a long way off
with Lazarus in his embrace. So he cried out,
“Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to
dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my
tongue, for I am in agony in these flames.”
Abraham said,
“My son, remember that during your life you
had your fill of good things, just as Lazarus his
fill of bad. Now he is being comforted here
while you are in agony. But that is not all:
between us and you a great gulf has been
fixed, to prevent those who want to cross from
our side to yours or from your side to ours.”
Questions:
What strikes you about Fidel’s experience?
What challenges you?
Do you grow any of your own food?
Do you buy seeds or keep them from the year
before?
Why would farmers like Fidel be tempted to buy
commercially produced seeds?
5
So he said, “Father, I beg you then to send
Lazarus to my father’s house, since I have five
brothers, to give them warning so that they do
not come to this place of torment too.”
Abraham said, “They have Moses and the
prophets, let them listen to them.” The rich
man replied, “Ah no, father Abraham, but if
someone comes to them from the dead, they
will repent.”
Then Abraham said to him, “If they will not
listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they
will not be convinced even if someone should
rise from the dead.”
Luke 16:19–31
Sabita
In Sabita’s village, it’s hard to grow enough to eat and sell when crops are frequently washed away by
heavy rains and sea water flooding. Sabita is the leader of a women’s group where Caritas Bangladesh,
supported by CAFOD, has shared simple solutions like raising vegetable beds a metre or more above the
ground, and using home-made compost to improve the salty soil.
“This plot has made a big difference to my family. It’s improved our diet and given us extra income,” says
Sabita. What’s more the group has enabled these rural women to be heard by government, and contribute
to policies which help people prepare for disasters.
“Women are learning more than ever about the impact of climate change on our lives and how we can be
better prepared for disaster,” she continues. “I am happy to help others through this committee
Questions:
What strikes you about Sabita’s experience?
What challenges you?
What do you think are the likely effects of climate change on
poor communities?
6
God spoke as follows to Noah and his
sons,
“I am now establishing my covenant
with you and with your descendants to
come, and with every living creature that
was with you: birds, cattle and every
wild animal with you; everything that
came out of the ark, every living thing
on earth. And I shall maintain my
covenant with you: that never again
shall all living things be destroyed by the
waters of a flood, nor shall there ever
again be a flood to destroy the earth.”
“And this,” God said, “is the sign of the
covenant which
I now make between myself and you
and every living creature with you for all
ages to come: I now set my bow in the
clouds and it will be the sign of the
covenant between me and the earth.
When I gather
the clouds over the earth and the bow
appears in the clouds, I shall recall the
covenant between myself and you and
every living creature, in a word all living
things, and never again will the waters
become a flood to destroy all living
things. When the bow is in the clouds I
shall see it and call to mind the eternal
covenant between God and every living
creature on earth,that is all living
things.”
Genesis 9:8–16