Members of Southeast Missouri State University's campus ministry organized a meal Sunday to sensitize the public to world hunger.

The meal was a kick-off to the university's World Food Day events held this week despite the fact that the actual World Food Day was in November.

The Rev. Mike Parry, a campus minister and coordinator of World Food Day at the university, organized the free red beans-and-rice meal with the Rev. Judith Breiner at the Wesley House. Those attending were supposed to donate a non-perishable food item as payment for the meal, but Parry said no one was going to be turned away.

"Tonight is soggy rice, well done beans and water," Breiner said of the kickoff event for this week's World Hunger Day activities.

Parry added that rice and beans are staples in the diets of impoverished people all over the world. The bland meal, Breiner said, is an attempt to sensitize the public to the way the poor live.

"Folks today don't know what it really means to be hungry," she said. "That doesn't mean to just skip a meal but to be hungry. `Where is my next meal coming from?'"

Despite the four months separating this event from the actual World Food Day, Parry said the food drive could not have come at a better time. City food pantries are depleted from the holidays and with welfare changes coming on there will be a greater need for local programs.

Breiner said she wasn't expecting too many people at Sunday's event and had prepared enough food to feed about 25. Parry said this week could already be counted a success because 400 students have signed up to donate the cost of their dinners Tuesday night to alleviate world hunger.

The money raised from these donations, about $540 so far, will be divided between the FISH pantry in Cape Girardeau and Church World Services to be used overseas.

Parry said he has been seeing a growing interest in public service from the students at Southeast. He said an effort to form a local Habitat for Humanity group regularly gets more student volunteers than the group can use.

Breiner said public welfare has come full circle over the years. Churches and pantries used to be the major supplier of foods and goods to the poor before the government interceded. Now that the government is withdrawing it will be up to the churches to reassert themselves, she said.

One of those attending Sunday's meal was Ronda Goolsby, a graduate student at Southeast who has experienced poverty first hand.

Goolsby said her family relied on the charity of churches and pantries for years as she was growing up. They moved frequently as one apartment house after another evicted them. She said those experiences have only made her stronger.

"I don't view the world as a lot of people do," she said. "We are all a part of something significant. I think we're all supposed to share."

The donations that helped Goolsby to survive are what she remembers when she's asked to give. She said she believes every donation makes a difference.

"Because of basically living on what other people gave us I have a sense of sharing that I don't think I would have otherwise," she said. "I feel a responsibility to other people."