Pink or red? Purple or bald? Here at Shanghai American Schoo, Pudong Campus, we demonstrated at this year’s World Vision 30 Hour Famine, that we can afford to choose how we look, but many people around the world cannot.

The hype about this year’s “famine” focused oon the question: Is high school teacher, Marney Rosen, really going to shave her head?” The answer was, as we all already knew: “Yes. Yes she really will shave her head.” But only if we raised 100,000 RMB first. And raise 100,000 RMB we did. And then 15,000 RMB more. But so what? Is this really the point? Was the purpose of it all really just so we could see Rosen sport what could become one of the latest trends in hair or lack of hair? Or will other students also go bald or dye their hair a rainbow of colors? The truth is, all the attention “hair” received this year was to increase the awareness of the issue behind the fundraising. As Rosen said just before being shaved, “Baldness will go away, but hunger won’t.”

Every day, 26,000 children under the age of five die from preventable causes such as hunger or malnourishment. Even more disturbing is that we have the food and the resources to stop it. So the 30 Hour Famine is one of the many ways SAS Pudong tries to fight this injustice. Through this event, students find people to sponsor them to go without food for 30 hours, and then receive education or raise awareness about world hunger during the event.

This year, the students’ education included Year 1 to K documentaries, a talk from Pudong campus Spanish Teacher Eleanor Leyden, and a project to demonstrate the magnitude in sheer number of 26,000 children. Our community sponsors (New York Deli for the sandwiches to break our fast at midnight, and Starbucks muffins for breakfast) also helped us highlight how lucky we are— those truly suffering from starvation cannot count down the hours to their next meal, or count on delicious donations from local food establishments.

One of the most important things to realize about 30 Hour Famine is that it is about student empowerment. It was founded by a Pudong campus high school student three years ago and is still organized and run by students. But it’s not just about the leaders. This year, over 100 students on Pudong campus stepped up and rallied around the cause. With students going door to door in their compounds and asking for money from relatives in the States, we were able to raised over 115,000 RMB, more than doubling what we have raised in past years.

Ashley Dyer was our top collector of sponsors with over 17,000 kuai in donations. In total, six of us shaved our heads or dyed our hair. For those in the SAS community, this has made one thing clear. Students DO care about the cycle of poverty and we DO want to do something to stop it. Clearly, SAS is willing to starve for food. By Elise BERG, Grade 12