When Nichole Williams was in high school, the student council she was on organized a hunger banquet to help students understand world hunger. The lesson stuck with her.

Now a fifth-grade teacher at Norwood Elementary School, Williams organized a similar banquet for the school's 400-plus students Friday morning. As the children entered the gym, they each drew a colored slip of paper. The colors represented people who live in Third World, Second World and First World countries.

The students who drew red went to the back of the gym and were given a small plastic bowl of plain white rice and a half a Dixie cup of "dirty" water (drinking water made a grayish brown with food coloring). More than half the students drew red, sat on the floor and were given no forks or napkins.

About 30 percent of the students drew green, which meant beans, rice and a cup of clear water. They got to sit on chairs.

The lucky ones, represented by 20 students, got blue. They sat up on stage at a banquet table decorated with flower arrangements. Three teachers waited on them and delivered sliced fruits and vegetables and cheese and crackers for appetizers, juice boxes, pizza and brownies.

Williams and the other teachers used the object lesson to complete a week of studying world hunger. Many of the children made sour faces as they carried bowls or rice or beans and rice.

"If you don't like it, think about all the millions of children who eat that every single day -- just try it," Williams told the children.

One of the teaching assistants handing out rice and water wanted to know what to do if a child wanted more.

"They don't get seconds," Williams said. "This isn't America."

Kindergartner Mickey Trice, 5, spotted the rice as the line moved toward the table. He didn't understand.

"I want my cereal," he said, arms crossed and bouncing with frustration. "I want my cereal."

Guidance counselor Martha Masterson told him she was sorry, but rice and water was all they had.

"This is all you could get if you lived in those countries," teacher Rhonda Cook said.

Most of the "Third World" students nibbled the rice with their fingers, but most ignored the murky water.

Seated at the table on the stage, fifth-grader Chi Vo said she was lucky but also felt sorry for her classmates.

Third-grader Issac Franklin invited his grandparents, Jean and Al Neil.

"They need to know these things," Jean Neil said. "This a good example of how other people live."

The children were asked to bring a dollar to the event. The money will sponsor a 7-year-old Ugandan boy named Medi Senyonga through Compassion International for a year.

Near the gym, cafeteria workers prepared pizza, barbecue sandwiches, corn, tossed salad, pear halves and Jello for lunch.

It's a safe bet that many of the children appreciated their lunches more than they did the day before.