School of Medicine Students to Host Poverty Awareness Banquet

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center’s International Medicine Club will host the Fifth Annual Dollar-A-Day: A Poverty Awareness Event from 6 to 8 p.m. May 2 at the Legacy Event Center Ballroom located at 1500 14^th St.

All proceeds will go to Breedlove Foods Inc., the only commercial-sized non profit processor of food that has distributed more than 1.02 billion servings of food globally. According to their website, approximately 925 million people in the world do not receive adequate nutrition to maintain health. Particularly disturbing is the fact that around 30,000 of these individuals die unnecessarily every day from a hunger-related disease.

Nicole Drawbridge, first-year TTUHSC medical student and committee chair, said the goal of Dollar-A-Day is to use a unique approach to dining to raise awareness about the issues of global poverty and the challenges to its eradication.

“Upon arrival, guests will participate in interactive presentations on the broad spectrum of living conditions in countries around the world,” Drawbridge said. “All guests will receive the same meal, but some may have to overcome different types of simulated barriers before sitting down to eat. We hope this event will impact those in attendance and inspire them to participate in their own way to combat global poverty.”

The guest speaker will be John Thomas, M.D., founder of Operation Hope and a renowned surgeon in Lubbock. Operation Hope is a locally-based non profit organization that seeks to provide medical support and community aid in developing countries around the world.  Thomas has worked in Bolivia, Malawi, Kenya and India, and most recently in Iraq and Haiti. Thomas’ role as a physician and his first-hand, in-country experience will provide a unique perspective on providing aid and medical care in these impoverished areas.

The event is open to the public and tickets can be purchased at the TTUHSC Office of Global Health from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in room 2B410. For more information, call (806) 743-2900 or email Heather Baumann at heather.baumann@ttuhsc.edu.

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