March 4th Tabling

Andreas Wenzel

Soc. 122: Social Movements

Tabling on March Fourth

            On March 4, 2016, our "Food For All" social movements group took part in a tabling exercise along with the other groups from class during our "March Forth on March Fourth" event. Throughout the day, before and after the main march/protest through campus, our group stationed a table near the campus library with water, fruit, and flyers with facts and statistics about food-insecurity to give away to staff and students passing by, along with our ears and voices to offer quality dialogue with anyone interested in our topic or cause. Flyers were posted around campus prior to the event, and social media posts were made. We helped set up the tables for the event, create a nice visual display, and attempted to reel-in passer-by's for discussion with the snacks and refreshments we had to offer.

            I stayed at the event from start to finish, helping both set-up and break-down all of the tables and displays. I was able to talk to a number of people who were either interested in the subject matter, the food we had available, or who had personal experience with the effects of food-insecurity themselves. We were thanked multiple times for taking the time to partake in the event and share the info in much need of being spread. One lady stopped and talked with us for close to 20 minutes, expressing her own experiences and frustrations about being food-insecure, and the gratitude she had for us simply being there and doing what we were. It was great to know how much our topic and event resonated with the people who passed us by, and there was definitely no shortage of people crossing our path, especially in between classes. The event was without a doubt effective in spreading food-insecurity awareness, raising and answering questions around the topic, and helping change and shape past and present perceptions about the topic and its origins.

            The only thing that I think would have made the event even more effective would be to try and go bigger in every aspect of preparation. I think we did an effective job in the events preparation and execution, but having more time, people, and organizations involved to announce and participate could exponentially increase event awareness and attendance. With the time and schedule we were limited to, however, the event itself was still without a doubt a complete success.