MIT Hunger Action Group Constitution
 

You can find our most recent constitution here -> Constitution

  

What is Hunger? Why Should We be Concerned About It in America?
 

Even today and here, in a city of high technology in the richest land in the world, hunger is pervasive, the cruel antagonist of thousands. According to Project Bread,

  • " 7.6 percent of households (approx. 467,000 people) are hungry or do not have consistent access to adequate food" in Massachusetts, and
  • " One in five children under age 12 in the Commonwealth is hungry or at risk of being hungry."
 

These facts are true despite that nearly one-third of those who accept food from food kitchens in Massachusetts are employed. According to Project Bread, the average salary of low-income workers in MA has dropped 8% in nine years after adjusting for inflation.

People who have survived hunger speak of it with awe, as a force to be reckoned with. Hunger can alter one's attention span and impair one's intellectual abilities, can weaken one's immune system, and can cause death. Hunger's effects are even worse on children than on adults. Nobody should ever have to go hungry, especially when there is enough food in the world to feed the entire population.

What Are Hunger Action Group's Activities for Combatting Hunger?
 
Hunger Action Group is an organization of the MIT community dedicated to educating and acting on the problem of hunger. We act both locally and globally, by raising awareness and collecting donations for programs like Oxfam America as well as by volunteering at soup kitchens and by donating leftover food in Cambridge and Boston. We believe that a local component to our activities is crucial both because it the most efficient way for us make a real difference in the time that we can offer, and because there are truly so many who need help right here in Cambridge and Boston.

Our regular activities include:
 
  • Food Salvage, a program in which we cooperate with Star Market to collect leftover food from MIT's cafeterias and deliver it to CASPAR, a homeless shelter near campus.
  • Saturday/Sunday Bread, a soup kitchen held at the United Methodist Church of All Nations in Boston. We meet about once a month on Saturday mornings to take the T together. Watch our web page for specific dates and times. We also volunteer regularly to do soup kitchens at CASPAR.
  • Twice a year, during National Hunger Awareness Week (the week before Thanksgiving) and during the last week of school, we hold canned food drives to help CASPAR and other agencies help the homeless. We also hold donation drives for cash and donations from student meal cards during National Hunger Awareness Week.
  • Every year, some members walk, and others volunteer to help serve the walkers, during Project Bread's annual Walk for Hunger in Boston.