Katie Hill and Ryan Campbell were hungry. After wandering around Washington, D.C. by foot with only a baloney sandwich to tide them over, the $1.13 that their group of three had collected panhandling that day certainly wasn’t going to be enough to satisfy their hunger.

In the end, Hill, a Wichita senior, Campell, an Olathe junior, and Brittany Wolfe, Kansas City, Kan., junior, settled for a McDonald’s double cheeseburger split among the three of them and a night spent sleeping on the streets.

The experience was just one of many a group of seven KU students will remember the rest of their lives after spending 48 hours on the street while participating in the Homeless Challenge during spring break.

Participants spent a 48-hour period living exactly as a homeless person would — sleeping on the street, begging for food and money and attempting to find work despite lacking a home address, as part of the KU Alternative Break program. Though seven began the 48-hour period on the street, only four continued after the first day. The others opted to end their period of homelessness early.

Hill said she felt uneasy about the potential danger initially, but that she never felt scared or threatened during the two days she spent homeless. The most eye opening part of her experience was the hatred and disgust people exhibited toward her, contrasted by the way fellow homeless people treated her, she said.

“People that society had written off were the only people that cared,” Hill said about the warmth and caring shown by others living on the street. “Other people wouldn’t even give you the time of day.”

Campbell said he assumed that they would just be ignored by passersby, but he was surprised by the severity of their treatment by strangers. He said the aspect of the trip that would stick with him was the realization that money and material possessions weren’t necessarily the route to happiness, especially after experiencing the hardships that thousands go through everyday with no end in sight, he said.

“You are cold, you are tired and you are hungry,” Campbell said. “It’s absolutely miserable, and we knew we only had to be there for 48 hours.”