Union's new student Multi-Faith Council raised more than $1,000 for the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York last week with a “fastathon.”
For one day, Thursday, Oct. 27, more than 200 participants pledged to refrain from eating. In return, local businesses and individual sponsors donated money to the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York.
“When brainstorming for our kickoff event, we found a theme that all our faiths had in common: fasting and charity,” said Naazia Husain '08. “The idea was that we are fasting so someone else will not have to, and we are raising awareness of the problem of hunger.”
The Multi-Faith Council is a coalition of the many faith groups on campus, including Hillel, Catholic Students Association, AUM-Hindu Students Association, Campus Protestant Ministry, Muslim Students Association and Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.
The group ended its event with a break-fast dinner in Old Chapel. David Cotter, associate professor of sociology, spoke to the group about the problem of hunger.
“The dinner was an opportunity for the various faiths involved to talk about the traditions of fasting and charity and to present a representative of the Regional Food Bank with the check,” Husain said.
The only organization of its kind in northeastern New York, the food bank collects large donations of food from the food industry and distributes it to charitable agencies serving hungry and disadvantaged people in 23 counties. In 2004, it provided 19.7 million pounds of food to more than 1,000 charitable agencies.