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Friday, November 13, 2009 8:56 PM CST
EIU students launch food collection drive this weekend
By the JG/T-C
editorial@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — Discounts on Eastern Illinois University football tickets, University Union Bookstore drawings, and a “Gardening 101” lecture are all part of a new campus food drive program.
Rachel Fisher, interim director of EIU Student Community Service, said the goal of the “30 Days of Change: EIU Fights Hunger” program is to gather canned goods for the local food pantry while offering fun activities.
EIU football fans can get $1 off their ticket price by bringing a canned food item to the UT Martin game at 1:30 p.m. today and the game at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Basketball fans can enter a prize raffle by bringing a canned item to game at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Lantz Arena.
In addition, students will be going in the city to collect canned food for the Charleston Area Churches Food Pantry. Amanda Messinger, a graduate student who works with Student Community Service, said they will go door to door 2-4 p.m. Sunday in the area between Sixth and Ninth streets and Lincoln and Harrison avenues.
Fisher said Student Community Service, which opened in July 2008, held its first food drive last fall and decided to hold another this fall, with the addition of educational programs to foster more conversation about food-related issues in the community.
Student Community Service will hold a “Gardening 101” lecture at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Paris Room on the University Union’s third floor. Family and Consumer Sciences faculty member Karen Hart will discuss the best ways of growing a garden.
The “30 Days of Change” program is also promoting the Haiti Connection’s annual Hunger Banquet at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Newman Catholic Center.
Every Wednesday in November, the University Union Bookstore is entering customers who bring canned food in a drawing for a percentage off their purchases.
Messinger said canned food is being collected at offices throughout campus, including the Student Community Service Office on the University Union’s third floor. She said all of the canned items will be gathered together and then delivered on Dec. 2 to the food pantry to serve Charleston area residents who are in financial need.
“Hunger is not something that was just in the Great Depression. This is something that is right here next door,” Messinger said.
Pantry Manager Lynn Collins said the pantry served 253 families, totaling 803 people, in October and has seen demand for its services steadily climb during the last year. She applauded EIU’s ongoing support for the pantry, which is open 1:30-4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 990 W. State St.
“They are fantastic. We depend on their support and their enthusiasm,” Collins said. “It invigorates me to see the students get all excited about the food drives.”
Contact Rob Stroud at rstroud@jg-tc.com or 238-6861.
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chattygal wrote on Nov 18, 2009 4:17 PM: