One night every academic year, Harris Dining Hall closes in hopes that students will donate their dinners to the international confederation Oxfam, which then collects the money that would otherwise be spent on food. Students are then encouraged to eat elsewhere that night, though the Jane Addams (JA) dining hall remains open.
According to its website, Oxfam is comprised of fifteen organizations working together in ninety-eight countries and with partners and allies around the world to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice. SGA’s Chair of Diversity and Equity Juan Pablo Pacheco ’14 revealed more about how Conn gets involved.
Oxfam is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that has a say in the United Nations and is considered legitimate. Like many other NGOs, Oxfam has been accused of some corruption, but Pacheco argued that it is “one of the more organized and trusted NGOs out there, which is why Connecticut College chooses to support it year after year.” Oxfam works with many other colleges and institutions as well, including Trinity College and Wesleyan University.
Juniors and seniors might recall having to sign sheets indicating their permission to donate their meals for the night to Oxfam, but this year SGA decided to do away with the signatures altogether, choosing instead to “default” credit any student meal plan accounts that go un-swiped for the evening.
As Pacheco explained, “It used to be that students would have to sign a waiver that allowed dining services to take the money away. We realized what a pain it was, having to count every signature, and then go to [the Jane Addams dining hall] and double check that people who had signed their permission didn’t actually go to eat. It was very difficult to get an accurate number indicating how many students actually donated their meals. Also, a lot of people who don’t usually go to Harris for dinner would never even get to sign the waiver.”
And so, by switching to what Pacheco referred to as an “opt-out” strategy as opposed to the old “opt-in” strategy, greater revenue would be accrued.
These small changes have raised some confusion, Pacheco admitted. For instance, students have been wondering why SGA even bothered tabling for Oxfam this year if the money was going to be taken anyway and signatures weren’t required. Pacheco explained that because this was the first year the changes went into effect, SGA wished to inform students that the Oxfam night was indeed still happening, as well as to inform students why Harris was going to be closed on Thursday evening.
Though there have been some bumps along the way, Pacheco confirmed that Ingrid Bushwack, Director of Dining Services, was in complete support of the recent changes, and was confident that they would lead to higher proceeds in the years to come.
Students still wonder exactly how not swiping their student I.D. will help the hungry, and how the money donated to Oxfam is calculated. There has been some controversy surrounding the proposed “cost of a Harris dinner,” currently valued at $9. In actuality, only half of this number is being donated to Oxfam for each meal, because the valued price of a Harris dinner is different from the total cost of the ingredients alone in the meal. That is to say, the staff and cooks preparing those ingredients are getting compensation for their work when you’re using your swipe. But through Oxfam night, only the total cost of the ingredients not being used is actually donated.
As for calculating how much money Connecticut College will donate to Oxfam, Pacheco explained that dining services will take data based on the average number of students who have gone to dinner in Harris on Thursday evenings over the past two months to get an average, and from that average, they will subtract the number of students who swiped in at the JA dining hall that Thursday. Based on that information, they will reach a fairly accurate total of students and donate 50% of that money to Oxfam International, while the remaining 50% will go towards feeding the local New London area homeless.
Since many students choose to go out to restaurants in the New London area on Oxfam night, Pacheco and Fabiola Miakassissa ’13 contacted restaurants in the area asking if they would agree to donate to the cause. Two Wives, Mr. G’s and Northern India all agreed to give a portion of their proceeds to the project. Pacheco stated that hopefully, by asking restaurants in the area a little earlier next year, they will be able to convince an even larger number of local restaurants to participate.
After Miakassissa finished reaching out to the community for support, she still found time to host a dinner in Lazrus House where students could have a fabulous dinner of “Chicken Prince,” “Fabiolicious vegetables,” ”Majda potatoes,” “Sibelina couscous” with Moroccan spices, white rice and fried plantains for ten dollars. All funds collected at the dinner went towards a microfinance project that will be implemented this winter by Connecticut College students.
When asked to comment on the possible hypocrisy of students going out to eat for sometimes expensive dinners while donating an ultimately small portion of funding to Oxfam, Pacheco mentioned the blood drives Conn runs throughout the year, which still don’t allow international or homosexual students to donate. Nevertheless, Conn continues to participate because despite the restrictions, it does allow a portion of the community to get involved and contribute to a just cause.
“A lot of the aid NGOs get is very hypocritical. Rich and privileged people feel good about themselves while not really making a huge impact,” Pacheco explained. “At the same time, it’s better than nothing. Hopefully we’ll at least make people think about the idea of ‘giving up something of mine for the common good, something greater than me,’ which will hopefully extend beyond giving up one’s dinner for Oxfam once a year.” •
- Photo from Oxfam.org
