BURLINGTON, VT. - While the weather was unseasonably mild for mid-November, more than 100 Champlain College students who slept in tents on the campus green say they still got a taste of the hardships and needs of the homeless who don't have a place to live or sleep.
Four nights into their stay at Tent City, Champlain College sophomores Shelby Dickinson and Hannah Andersen had crooks in their necks but smiles on their faces as they attended the Reality Bite Hunger Banquet on the last night of the annual program to raise awareness of needs in the community. They had been sleeping in tents set up on Aiken Green since Monday evening.
"It's not as much as a simulation as it is a solidarity event to spread awareness," said Andersen, who helped plan the event and was participating in Tent City for her second year.
The dinner capped off a week of hands-on learning about community needs related to homelessness, poverty, food insecurity and issues facing youth and families in need of shelter. The 30 or so banquet participants were randomly assigned their dinners, which ranged from a full turkey dinner at a table to beans and rice and milk to rice in a pot with no dishes or utensils and pitcher of "dirty" water.
The Center for Service and Civic Engagement (CSCE), which organizes Tent City, asked participants to give up their smart phones, laptops, and warm beds to help highlight the struggles of homeless families and individuals to the campus and greater Champlain community. This year, the 7th annual Tent City coincided with National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week.
Fundraising was held through the week and by Friday, participants raised $1,300 for the Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS), an all-service shelter providing support services for homeless individuals and families in Burlington. "The fundraising isn't what Tent City is all about, but it is fulfilling to help locals affected by homelessness or on the verge of becoming homeless," said Andersen.
Sleeping outside on Aiken Green was the most visible hardship of the awareness program. In addition to giving up their technology devices, students, faculty and staff were asked to shower in the gym locker rooms and use public resources such as internet in the library. In the dining hall, participants were provided with a typical "soup kitchen" dinner menu of soup and a sandwich, similar to meals often served in homeless shelters and food shelves. After evening classes ended, the group reconvened in the Hauke Family Center conference room for a nightly film, speaker, or event related to the day's focus and theme. Among the topics explored:
• Veterans and Homelessness, a film "When I Came Home."
• Youth and Homelessness, speaker Justin Verette - Youth Outreach worker and Community Interventionist (collaboration between Burlington Police Department and Howard Center).
• Families and Homelessness, panel discussion with the Committee on Temporary Shelter.
• Hunger and Homelessness: Reality Bite Hunger Banquet co-sponsored by International Education Week.
To learn more about COTS, visit www.cotsonline.org. To explore Champlain's Center for Community Service and Civic Engagement and volunteer and community opportunities, visit http://www.champlain.edu/Community-Service-and-Civic-Engagement-Program.html.

About Champlain College
Since 1878, Champlain College has provided career-focused education to students from its hilltop campus in Burlington, Vt. Champlain's distinctive educational approach embodies the notion that true learning only occurs when information and experience come together to create knowledge. Champlain offers traditional undergraduate and online undergraduate courses, along with online certificate and degree programs and eight master's degree programs. Champlain offers study abroad programs at its campuses in Montreal, Quebec and Dublin, Ireland. Champlain College will be included in the Princeton Review's "best colleges" guidebook, The Best 376 Colleges: 2012 Edition. Champlain was named a "Top-Up-and-Coming School" by U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges and was ranked in the top tier of 2012 Regional Colleges in the North. For more information, visit www.champlain.edu.