Most of us have a real desire to help the destitute people of Haiti after the recent terrible earthquake.  Let’s face it, though, college students are poor in their own way.  Those of us without jobs often do not have even a dime of our own money to give.  For me, a feeling of guilt is generated because I know that even as poor students we are so blessed, while others are not similarly blessed—we have a relatively comfortable and opportunity-rich life, and we are financially able to spend thousands of dollars on our education.  At the same time, knowing that there are people in the world who are dying daily and that a life could be saved by as little as the amount of money I spend on a sandwich—makes me uncomfortable.  Sometimes I wonder for a second if it is right what we are doing with our money, when others are starving.  But then I remember that the same Lord who gave us the commandment, “love your neighbor”, also commanded us to “seek learning, even by study and also by faith (D&C 88:118),” which is what we are doing here.  There must be a good reason for that.  So in the end we are faced with the challenge of making a difference in the world while under the monetary, time-related, social and other pressures of college.  We want to find a way that we can occasionally sacrifice our sandwich for someone in need without throwing our lives out of whack.

In this vein, I believe students should consider an occasional purposeful fast as a method of raising money for the poor.  Sure, we fast already for the purposes of personal revelation, and we have a fast Sunday set apart each month where we are expected to fast. This is good.  But King Benjamin said pointedly, “I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath (Mosiah 4:26, italics added).”  If we were to truly follow this admonition by fasting according to the excess that we have, we could help many more people.

Most all of us have this excess.  We have enough money so that we are able to eat three meals a day without much thought.  Many of us actually eat much more than we need.  I think this provides the opportunity for most of us to occasionally skip a meal without adverse health effects of any kind.  Some studies even indicate the possible health benefits of fasting.  For an example, check out a study published in the Journal of Nutrition that examines the results of intermittent feeding on rats (Ruiqian Wan, Simonetta Camandola, and Mark P. Mattson “Intermittent Food Deprivation Improves Cardiovascular and Neuroendocrine Responses to Stress in Rats” J. Nutr. 133: 1921-1929.)

If we as students were to occasionally and purposefully skip a $5 meal at the Crossroads, and donate it to the church humanitarian fund or another charity, what would the effect be?  (other than the confusion of campus food services personnel?)

Actually, even if we could do no more as a campus than strictly keep the fast Sunday set by the church, we would do marvels.  If all enrolled students at BYU-Idaho paid a $5 dollar monthly fast offering (and remembered to turn it in), we would be donating over $65,000 per month to the poor and the needy.  That would be over $780,000 per year, which is not an insignificant number.  If we added to that an additional $5 monthly offering, we would have donated over $1,500,000!  That would be an accomplishment!

As we all turn our thoughts and prayers to the people of Haiti this season, let us all remember what we can do as students.  Despite our hectic schedule and important priorities, there are always ways that we can make a difference, even if it means sacrificing a meal, a video game, or even a few iTunes songs.  Fasting is a very effective method given by the Lord so that we can make a contribution even if we do not have any “extra” money.  And if we do not learn to contribute, what good is our education, anyway?