The Hunger Banquet

The following is from an article that appeared on the front page of one of the national newspapers:

If Gerry Connolly and friends request the pleasure of your company for lunch sometime soon, you might think twice before accepting. The affair could well turn nasty before it’s over. As Associate Executive Director of the “American Freedom From Hunger Foundation,” Mr. Connolly with his colleagues frequently gives banquets that dramatize the current world food crisis. At such affairs they wait for the ripe moment when stomachs are growling and heads ache from hunger before serving any food. Then one-third of the guests sit down to juicy prime ribs, steaming baked potatoes and all the trimmings. The other guests are served a mound of rice and tea.
“The hostility of those two-thirds eating rice and drinking tea is really something,” Mr. Connolly says. “For some people it ceases to be a game. That’s his intention, of course. For a few hours, at least, these people…