World Hunger, Border Crossers, and Food Drives

To kick off our Thanksgiving service project (a food drive), I decided to do a world hunger activity with my kids at school.  It was a toned down version of the popular hunger banquets.
Based on the world population and percent of world total income, we figured out how our world would look if the population were just my class and wealth were measured in cookies.

Each child got to draw a card and find out where they were born.  The anticipation was high as each drew nervously.  Then, we went out to where we had marked each continent with tape on the floor and they got to go to the country where they'd live.

I announced we'd be having a party, but because some countries had more money than others, they got more.  Here was the breakdown:

CONTINENT/AREA         # of KIDS          TOTAL # of COOKIES
Africa & the Middle East          3                                    1/2 
Asia                                        19                                  9 1/2
Latin America/Caribbean         3                                   1 1/4
North America (US/Canada)      2                                   11
Europe/Other Industrialized      5                                   9 3/4
Nations

After they had their bags of cookies, I told them to eat them and stood back to watch what would happen.  These were my interesting observations:

1. The United States thought they were pretty great and sat down to eat as many cookies as humanly possible, rarely noticing anyone else, except to tell them no if they asked for a cookie or make fun of them.
2. One of the children in Latin America told his classmates he was going to sneak across the border and get some of North America's cookies.  He attempted to cross and got sent back by the kids in North America.
3. The kids in Africa solemnly divided their half a cookie up between all of them, watching and eating every crumb.  They didn't complain, but looked awfully pitiful.
4. The kids in Europe felt a little bit bad as they were near some of the kids in Africa.
5.  Asia was so crowded that the cookies weren't evenly distributed.  Those closest to those with food got the cookies while some got none at all.

As we finished the activity, we came back and learned the actual statistics about our world, world hunger, and even hunger in the US.  They then got to brainstorm what we can do to help.  I had to laugh when one kid said he'd ask his uncle if we could borrow one of his jets to take food down.  I have a feeling I am NOT in Kansas anymore....

It's interesting what you can learn about yourself and the world from watching a group of children.

P.S.  Statistics were based off information gathered in the year 2000.