Oxfam hosts fast

Correction appended

More than 400 students signed up to participate in the annual Oxfam Hunger Fast on Tuesday, Oxfam Princeton president Ashley Schoettle ’10 said.

For the fast, students sign up to forgo eating dinner in the dining hall and agree to donate the money that they would have spent on that meal to Oxfam.

A number of students, however, failed to participate in the event even though they had signed up, because they said they forgot that Tuesday was the night to skip dinner.

“Everyone I talked to forgot about it,” Greg Dooley ’11 said. “[Oxfam] didn’t do a very good job reminding people not to eat today.”

Mike DiStefano ’11 experienced a similar problem when he mistakenly ate dinner at Forbes College despite having signed up for the fast. “There wasn’t really any really obvious advertisement in my dining hall,” he said, noting that in previous years, an Oxfam volunteer has been posted by the dining hall entrances to remind students of their commitment.

Schoettle agreed that this was a major obstacle to the success of the fast, noting that “a lot of people sometimes forget.”

Others were more direct about their failure to participate. “I just didn’t know,” Andrew Li ’11 said.

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Eleanor Elbert ’12 was similarly prevented from participating. “I heard about [the fast] today, so I couldn’t participate because I didn’t hear about it before,” she said.

In the coming months, Oxfam will organize events like last year’s popular Malaria Madness and hopes to “provide more opportunities to get involved.”

Indeed, many of those who forgot to participate agreed that in theory, the fast was admirable, and many expressed potential interest given more organization on the part of the club.

“It was a little disheartening [to miss the fast] because you want to do your part,” said Christian Rolon ’11, who signed up to give up his meal but did not remember to do it. “After you’ve proxed in, there’s nothing you can do.”

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DiStefano agreed. “I think [Oxfam] is a good thing,” he said, noting that fasts and similar activities would be “more effective if [organizers] took measures to remind people.”

Despite its good intentions, Oxfam cannot recover the funds lost tonight through students who either did not hear about the fast or forgot to participate.

Still, Schoettle said she’s “hopeful” that Oxfam can continue to reach out to the student body and expand its operations.

Correction: The original version of this article stated that there had been a significant decline in participation in the Oxfam Hunger Fast held on Nov. 11. In fact, though the Fast's organizers estimated shortly after the fast that participation may have been lower, the fast raised more money than in previous years.

This same article stated that Cap & Gown Club had declined to participate in the fast. In fact, Cap had agreed to participate, but will host its own Oxfam fast at a later date.

The Daily Princetonian regrets these errors.