Dinner was served.

Last night's cuisine from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America were prepared for students and faculty members at a sold out event to celebrate World Food Day at Café Laura.

The catch: Attendees ate the dinner of a privileged or underprivileged individual but were unaware of the food they were going to be served until the plate was set before them.

Each meal came with a profile to explain the country the food came from, the type of food, the individual's background and how much food a person from that country would consume daily.

"The point of this event was to bring the global perspective to this small area of campus," said Fujiko Signs, a representative from the Interfaith and Community Coalition against Prejudice and Violence. "We wanted people to leave here being inspired."

People need to know about world hunger and they need to know they are not alone in the fight against world hunger, Signs said.

Stephanie Swaney agreed with Signs and said it was good to be reminded about world hunger.

"When I was in college I went on a lot of different missions trips where it was apparent that there was world hunger," Swaney said. "I think it is a good thing to have [events like this] to remind ourselves about world hunger."

It is very easy to forget about world hunger in this country because it is not normal for us to think about people going hungry, she said.

"If we reinforce that we need to be aware of hunger then I think it would be a really effective thing for students to learn," Swaney said.

Many students said the event taught them more about food from other countries and what they can do to help with hunger issues locally.

"I learned a lot about what other people eat," Sarah McFadden (junior-elementary education). "They don't have that much of a variety in what they eat."

Her friend Megan Gilliland (junior-broadcast journalism) agreed that there wasn't much variety in the dinner she ate.

"[Tonight] I learned about how lucky we are in this country," Gilliland said. "I learned a lot from the posters [that were on display] too."

Jonathan Pelky (senior-graphic design) made a poster that was on display last night, which was inspired by the Penn State dining halls.

"I remember from the very first day that I was here I was put in the dish room and I couldn't believe how much food was wasted here for just one meal," Pelky said. "The dining halls are all-you-can-eat and you should do just that. If they would only take what they could eat and if we all did this it would help the waste."

Marilyn McPheron, an education abroad adviser for Penn State, said students did most of the research and planning for last night's event and hope to host this event next year as well and hoped for more student involvement.

One student agreed.

"The only suggestion I would have about tonight is to have more specific facts," Linda Kronheim (graduate-nutrition). "Targeting the event more towards students would be good because I didn't hear too much about the event."

McPheron agreed and said they hope to have students in marketing get involved for next year's event to make it more publicized.