By Julie A. Miller
Catholic Herald

Hunger awareness is theme of youth retreat

SUPERIOR -- Religious education students at the Cathedral of Christ the King Parish learned a little about what it is like to be hungry. They also collected food and money to help the hungry.

It was the third year students in grades seven through 12 participated in a 30-hour fast and hunger awareness retreat. Twelve students, mostly eighth graders, took part on March 9 and 10. Three 10th and 11th graders from the parish confirmation class were also on hand to help with the retreat.

The last meal the students ate was Friday lunch at their schools. After school they gathered up sleeping bags and other necessities and came to Cathedral's Kress Hall, where they remained until early Saturday evening. The fast ended with a pizza supper after 4:30 p.m. Mass in the Cathedral.

The teens participated in many activities during the retreat. They watched documentary films about world hunger and, as a break from the serious activities, played some games, including an informal volleyball game.

One hunger awareness activity the teens worked on was a holdover from last year. Religious education director Janette Gil de Lamadrid said, "There is one poster idea that just took so long we didn't finish it . You have to draw 30,000 people ... that is supposed to signify how many people die of starvation (and hunger related illnesses) per day."

Students worked at adding more tiny stick figures to last year's posters and by the end of this year's fast there were about 17,000 figures. Sarah Meador said that drawing all those figures was pretty hard and Meagan Campbell added, "I didn't realize 30,000 was that much." Both girls are in the eighth grade.

As a community service project, the teens washed all of the pews and pillars in the Cathedral, a big job since there are enough pews to seat about 800 people.

They also spent about two hours helping out at the Damiano Center in Duluth, Minn. The center runs a soup kitchen and provides clothing and social services to the poor. Some students helped by unpacking and sorting bakery donations, while others broke down large cardboard boxes to prepare them for recycling. Cleaning chores were also on the agenda. Some of the teens were assigned to wash tables, walls and shelves, while others swept and mopped the floors.

The food fast is also a retreat, with a strong spiritual dimension. At each juice break, they said special prayers. The students also set up a small chapel area in one of the rooms at Kress Hall. On Friday night they all gathered around the tabernacle in an alcove in the church for night prayers.

All of the activities, both serious and fun, helped the teens recognize the problems of hunger. Gil de Lamadrid said, "We're finding the needs in the world and then being with those who are hungry and experiencing the hunger in ourselves -- that's our solidarity with the hungry."

Some of the eight grade students said going without food was not as difficult as they expected. Megan Mahan said, "I thought it was going to be hard, but it wasn't." Brooke Bailey added, "We just kept busy." Peter Stauduhar mentioned that playing games and talking about God helped make it easier.

To help the hungry, each student brought three food items and made a $5 donation. Parents, friends and parishioners were also asked to pledge money for each hour a student fasted. Gil de Lamadrid said, "If these kids know that every hour they are fasting they are earning $3 (for the hungry), it's a good motivater."

Additional funds were raised at the Saturday Mass. Some of the teens volunteered to stand at the doors to the church with big soup kettles collecting donations. According to Gil de Lamadrid, the money will sent to Food for the Poor, an interdenominational Christian ministry based in Deerfield Beach, Fla., that assists the poor in the Caribbean and Latin America.

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