The NIU Hunger Project is sponsoring a “Skip-a-Meal” program which is expected to raise $8,000 for the underprivileged.

Cathy Raidna, NIU Hunger Project vice president, said the skip-a-meal program is taking place in the residence halls. Residents who signed up for the program are giving up three to five meals during the semester in which the money that would have been spent on their meals will provide necessities for the underprivileged of the DeKalb area and also worldwide, she said.

Joseph Vigneux, project faculty adviser, said, “About 2,800 students out of the 7,500 in the residence halls have signed up for the project.”

Stevenson North and Grant South residence halls have had the highest resident outcome with more than half being involved in the program, Raidna said.

“Half of the funds will stay here and half will go to the national project,” Raidna said.

Vigneux said the half of the money raised for the DeKalb area will go to one of the local hunger organizations but a definite decision on which organizations will receive funds will not be made until the end of the semester.

Clinton Jesser, also a project faculty adviser, said the money earned also will be combined with that earned from five million other branches in the worldwide hunger project.

Jesser said, “This should not be thought of as sacrifice and suffering but as a joyful opportunity. It is the first time in the human race it (hunger) can be ended.”

Raidna said the program does not give food but “things they need to produce their own food like (materials for) providing irrigation ditches.”

The National Hunger Project will schedule a briefing in the residence halls to answer questions from the students about what the project has done with the contributions, Raidna said.