Student campus organizations uniting against world hunger asked one question Thursday: “The world produces enough food to feed everyone, but 840 million people are hungry — why?”

These were the words plastered on poster-sized signs hanging from the shoulders of ISU students who belong to a number of student groups. The groups came together to educate the campus about what can be done to help the 1.2 billion people who live on less than $1 a day.

For a number of years, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church and Student Center has had one day of fasting every year the week before Thanksgiving as a reminder of those who are hungry in other places of the world, said Elizabeth Vogel, senior in biological/pre-medical illustration and member of the St. Thomas organization.

This year, the church decided to make the event an interfaith gathering of campus organizations across campus.

Participating groups included the Muslim Student Association, the Rock, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, University Lutheran Congregation and the student center of St. Thomas Aquinas.

“Through doing this we’ve learned a lot and it’s been great for the groups to come together on this. The main reason to be out [there was] to let people know … to raise consciousness,” Vogel said. “It’s pretty easy to forget [the hungry].”

As a member of the Rock, Amanda Soukup, freshman at Des Moines Area Community College in general education, said it was important for the Rock to participate in this event as a way for different views to come together and unite against a common cause.

“In my mind it’s the younger group taking on the responsibility … this is the group that is still making decisions in their lives,” Soukup said. “When you get older you’re kind of set in your ways, you have a routine, but college students are more open to make the effort.”

Participants also handed out empty paper plates plastered with facts about hunger in the world and what can be done to help.

“The idea [was] to present [students] with a question,” Vogel said of the posters.

Participants structured themselves in three different locations on campus in groups of four to eight people.

To get a better understanding of how the poor live day-to-day, participants chose to fast for the day and give the money that would have been used on food to Oxfam America agency, a non-governmental organization that works to fight world hunger. Members also asked passing students and faculty to do the same.