Sept. 12, 2006 — Students from the Lowell Bennion Community Service Center at the University of Utah will host the sixth annual Hunger Banquet, an event to raise awareness on campus and the greater community about local and global hunger issues. This year’s Hunger Banquet, themed “A World Without Hunger,” will be on Monday, Sept. 25, from 6 until 7:30 p.m., in the University”s Union Saltair Room. Matt Minkevitch, executive director of the Road Home, will be the featured speaker.

“Hunger impacts all races, all countries and the very foundation of humanity,” notes Hunger Banquet committee chairman Josh Newbury. “This year’s banquet will focus on the goal of eliminating chronic hunger throughout the entire world. The Bennion Center hopes to empower students to take action in their respective communities by engaging them in active dialogue and discussion.”

This year, the Bennion Center is collaborating with the U’s Alumni Association and the ASUU senior class to include the banquet as part of Homecoming Week, which begins Sept. 25 and runs through Sept. 30. Admission to the banquet is $5, or five cans of food, for students, and $8, or eight cans of food, for non-students. Advanced tickets are now being sold at the Bennion Center, located in room 101 of the Union. All proceeds from the banquet will be donated to the Utah Food Bank and Oxfam America, a nationwide hunger relief program.

The Bennion Community Service Center at the University of Utah collaborates with community agencies to provide meaningful volunteer opportunities for University students, faculty, staff and alumni, while educating them about social, cultural and legal issues. The Bennion Center offers 150 service-learning courses each year and sponsors more than 40 student-directed programs. Each year, nearly 6,000 Bennion Center volunteers donate more than 150,000 hours of community service to a variety of projects.

For more information, contact Josh Newbury via e-mail at Joshua_newbury@hotmail.com.