Students fasted Friday in honor of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, raising about $400 for Hope Haven, a shelter in DeKalb.

Members of the Muslim Student Association, the Anthropology Club and Student Involvement & Leadership Development organized Fast-A-Thon. This marks the second year NIU has participated in Fast-A-Thon, and the eighth year the event has been held across the nation and at other universities.

“I am fasting today to … get a feeling of what it’s like to go without food, to be part of that group of individuals who are less fortunate than me,” said Syed Warsi, Muslim Student Association student adviser and senior family consumer and nutrition sciences major. “Not only that, but to realize that I am thankful for the things that I have, to build a closer connection with myself and my community.”

Warsi, who was the president of the Muslim Student Association last year, said Fast-A-Thon was started by a person at Ohio State University as a way to raise money for community members in need.

“I wanted to join because I thought it would be cool to be involved in starvation awareness,” said Sharonda Roberson, sophomore political science major. “I have an apartment so I fast anyways, but you have less energy when you don’t eat all day.”

Students were prompted to fast from sunrise to sunset, and at 4:30 p.m. Friday a potluck feast was put on for the fasters. The feast was held in the Campus Life Building instead of the Holmes Student Center because the center does not allow outside food and would not have allowed food to be brought in by Fast-A-Thon participants. Organizers wanted a potluck feast because they wanted to give the event a Thanksgiving feel.

“My religion doesn’t mandate that I fast, but I don’t go hungry very often, so I wanted to do it as a show of solidarity with all of those people who don’t have enough to eat every day,” said senior English major Kristina Kroger.