Countywide : 2 Groups to Sponsor 72-Hour ‘Hunger-Thon’

Bread, rice and water will become the only meal for participants in a 72-hour “hunger-thon” aimed at showing a correlation between the arms race and world hunger.

Co-sponsored by the North Orange County National Organization for Women and the Alliance for Survival, the hunger-thon will begin Thursday.

On the last day of the event, next Saturday, a noon rally is scheduled at the Plaza of the Flags, Santa Ana Civic Center, where those fasting will eat their last bread, rice and water meal--”the typical diet of a Third World person,” NOW co-coordinator Patti Headland-Wauson said. The rally also will feature music and speakers.

Both groups are looking for people willing to join the fast and others who will sponsor a participant by pledging a certain amount of money for every hour. The groups hope to raise $50,000, Headland-Wauson said.

Half of the money raised will be donated to the American branch of Oxfam, Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, a nonprofit agency that finances disaster relief and self-help projects, such as farm education. The other half will go toward the Alliance for Survival, which works toward “stopping the arms race,” Headland-Wauson said.

“There’s been a tremendous response,” Headland-Wauson said. “This is their way of being able to participate without going out of their routine.”

For further information, call 520-0669 or 533-6377.