About 1500 students gave up their dining hall meals last night to participate in a fast sponsored by the Harvard Hunger Action Project to benefit Oxfam America, an international development organization.

The University Food Services will donate 95 cents to Oxfam for each fasting student.

The number of students signed up for the fast may be misleading, however. About one fifth of 100 students questioned a the Freshman Union in a random survey last night had signed up for the fast but were eating dinner anyway, taking second servings from friends who were not participating in the fast.

The Hunger Project urged students when they signed up for the fast not to eat out, but a number of restaurants in the Square said last night that their dinner business was heavier than usual.

The Harvard Hunger Action Project, a student groupworking to reduce starvation overseas, has organized similar fasts for the last three years.

"Interest is down from last year," Luke Dones '79, a member of the project, said yesterday. Dones said he had difficulty finding volunteers to man the tables where students signed up for the fast.

The Freshman Union and Quincy House had the largest number of fasting students, while Kirkland and Eliot Houses had the lowest, Gina Gonzales '79, one of the fast's organizers, said yesterday.

Oxfam America is a non-profit international agency which funds development projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America.