On the evening of March 6, Sammamish drivers were treated to a strange sight: More than 100 children and teens burdened with backpacks, duffels and sleeping bags walking in a columnar mass north alongside 228th Avenue Southeast.

The walkers, each one a member of a local church youth congregation, were on a nearly 2-mile trek from Pine Lake Covenant Church to Sammamish Presbyterian Church, where they would camp overnight among the pews. The more adventurous among them would sleep in “Famineville,” a tent community on the church’s back lawn (next to an unlocked door for those anyone who found they couldn’t brave the cold all night).

Among the group, the walkers pass the time with talk about school, video games and favorite television shows. A few start up a game of I Spy. They display the enthusiasm that might go hand-in-hand with an after-school club or activity group, but their high spirits betray the solemn mission of the night: to better understand poverty.

The students were participants in the 30 Hour Famine, a faith-based annual experiment in simulating the experience of homelessness and food insecurity. Each participant had begun fasting after breakfast that morning; They wouldn’t eat again until midday Saturday.

Volunteer parent Beth Busacca said 30 hours was the amount of time an impoverished person might expect to go between meals. Issaquah Food Bank Director Cori Walters, speaking to the participating children in a speech before their walk, said that level of hunger could cause lethargy and poor concentration. Impoverished students can additionally become the target of bullying for reasons as trivial as wearing old clothing, she said.

“You are here tonight to suffer just a little bit,” Walters said. “You’re here to feel the stress.”

Jack Kendall, a 14-year-old Inglewood Middle School student who was participating in the famine for his third time, said the fast could be difficult but that it was fun to bond with the other kids going through it.

“We’re experiencing what other people go through every day,” he said.

Kendall’s friend, Beaver Lake Middle School student Jakob Kubicki, said he found out about the event the year prior while he was participating in another donation drive for famine in Africa.

“Last year we got big things of chicken when it was all over,” Kubicki said. “Last year I could really feel the hunger.

“But I just want to give more and more because of the event.”

Busacca’s daughter was participating for her seventh year in a row, and playing guitar on stage in a brief concert before the walk. The encouragement of older children does a lot to draw younger kids into the event, she said.

“She’s really exhausted by the end,” Busacca said. “But she always comes away with a positive feeling.”