Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week will see events from professors and students trying to educate attendees about local and national homelessness.

Documentary screening

Media studies professor Laura Vazquez will screen two documentaries she produced regarding homelessness from 6 to 7:30 p.m. today in the Stevenson Smart Classroom.

Each documentary is 20 minutes long. The attendees will reflect on each showing with Vazquez.

The first documentary features homeless children from middle school through high school, primarily focusing on grade school and middle school children. The second documentary screening is about homeless teens who are in high school.

“The organizer and I agreed that we should do each one. It might be better for students to watch those so that they can understand what it is like to grow up without permanent housing and what it’s like to be a teen in high school [navigating] the world without a home,” Vazquez said.

Fast-a-Thon

The Muslim Student Association, STAND and Anthropology Club will host Fast-a-Thon.

Muslim Student Association has been a participant of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week since 2012. During Fast-a-Thon, students pledge to fast for one day and donate $1 to the local homeless shelter.

Association members are hoping to get students, staff and faculty to promise to give up food and drink from sun up until sun down to get a feeling of what it is like to go hungry for one day. A civic reflection and dinner will be held Friday in the Campus Life Building.

“There are more student organizations involved [than last year], dinner is contributed by students and community members, and the program includes a civic reflection session rather than a keynote speaker,” said Syed Warsi, Muslim Student Association president.

Registration is 1 to 4 p.m. today in DuSable Hall and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday. Tuesday, registration will be in DuSable; it will be at Wirtz Hall Wednesday and Thursday. The fast will be at 4:20 p.m. Friday in the Campus Life Building, Room 100.

Pizza sales

The Collegiate Association of Unreasonable Social Entrepreneurs is selling pizza to raise money for the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

The Eat for a CAUSE Pizza Sale is 11:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Thursday in the Barsema Hall Atrium. The goal is to sell enough pizza to cover 1,000 meals to those in need through the Northern Illinois Food Bank. Pre-orders and delivery orders are for those who buy a whole pizza. Orders cost $20 for one pizza or $35 for two. To preorder the pizzas, email [email protected].

Other

There will be a winter coat collection drive until Friday. For more information, contact Lucero Martinez at 815-753-8154 or [email protected].

Project Red organizers will take students via bus to Feed My Starving Children, 555 Exchange Court in Aurora, to volunteer and pack meals.

To register for the Feed My Starving Children trip, email Jasmine Harvell at [email protected]. The bus will leave from Grant North at 6:30 p.m. and return at about 10:30 p.m.