Students will raise awareness for global hunger and earn community service hours at Palo Alto High School Key Club’s Fast for Awareness event on Friday, Oct. 14, according to the group’s Facebook event.

The event, which was cancelled last year due to complications, encourages students to voluntarily fast for 30 hours, from 6 a.m. Friday to 12 a.m. Saturday.

The group’s page said that the goal is to get students to “better understand the hunger of the less fortunate and gain personal awareness of global hunger.”

Students can also earn 30 hours of community service for participating in the event.

For the event, students will stay overnight at the small gym at Paly starting at 5 p.m. Friday until the end of the fast. Key Club will offer juice and water, the only acceptable ‘foods,’ and other activities during the stay. The event will cap off with a free lunch for all the participants, according to the group page.

Some of the events, according to Molly Chen, secretary of Key Club, include basketball, jeopardy and more “charitable” volunteering events.

“We have some activities you can do to get community service hours, like writing cards for the Children’s Miracle Network or folding cranes for a local children’s hospital,” Chen said.

According to Jacqueline Woo, president of Key Club, the event will also include collecting food donations to the Second Harvest Food Bank.

“In previous years, we [Key Club] have fundraised for Action Against Hunger, but this year, we have decided to localize it and fundraise for the Second Harvest Food Bank instead,” Woo said. “Attendees are expected to donate a set number of cans or a suggested donation … in the form of a check in order to attend.”

Unlike previous years, this year’s Fast for Awareness will be held in the fall instead of the spring, according to Woo.

According to the Facebook event page, students can pick up sign-up sheets in the Academic Resource Center, Library, Math resource Center or room P-8. The deadline for sign-ups is the day of the event itself.

Both Chen and Woo anticipate the event will be a success.

“Our last FFA [Fast for Awareness], in May 2010, went pretty well,” Woo explained. “We had a lot of attendees, more than I had expected, so hopefully we can bring that back this year.”

“I’m super pumped for this year’s event,” Chen added, explaining that Fast for Awareness is also an opportunity for students to enjoy the activities and food offered at the event. “I’m sure it will be really fun. It always is.”

Chen also said that the importance of Fast for Awareness is the meaning behind it: understanding that hunger is a real problem for people everywhere.

“Hunger isn’t prevalent just in third world countries; it’s also prevalent in many areas in the United States,” she said. “Being able to raise awareness helps everyone do a little good in the world.”

For more details on how to sign-up for Fast for Awareness, visit the Fast for Awareness Facebook page.