Students collect more than 5,300
items, raise $740 for restocking
MURFREESBORO,
Tenn. — MTSU's Fraternity and Sorority Life recently collected more
than 5,300 items and raised roughly $740 by hosting a food drive during its
spring Greek Week celebration.
The
beneficiary was MTSU’s Student Food Pantry. Located on the second floor
of MT One Stop, the pantry offers canned food and other nonperishable
items to help students in a pinch throughout the semester.
Shalayna Hoekstra, Greek Week chair, said
that FSL usually partners with Habitat for Humanity for their philanthropic
project, but since there were no immediate Habitat builds, they discovered that
MTSU Student Food Pantry could use some help.
Hoekstra
is proud of the large amount of participation from among the FSL’s 24 campus
organizations.
"I'm
really humbled that we put in so much work and that our community really proved
to people that — I think Fraternity and Sorority Life doesn't always have a
great reputation, so when we can provide philanthropic services to the students
of our community it's really great,” she said.
During Greek
Week, April 17-20, FSL hosted events such as a luau and a cookout that
required the entrance fee of one canned food item for those who attended.
Kristen Russell serves as coordinator of
outreach and support programs at MT One Stop and oversees the operations of the
Student Food Pantry. First opened in fall 2012, the pantry is available to
currently enrolled students, who must bring their student ID to access the
pantry.
Russell
said inventory has been running a bit low, so she reached out to FSL Director Leslie
Merritt about ways Greek members could help.
“To have
a donation this large come in will really help keep us up and running right
now,” Russell said. “I think sometimes people forget that students are here
over the summer and so we do need donations even during the summer.”
As part
of their philanthropic work that promotes the idea of giving back, Merritt
believed that focusing on the True Blue community would be beneficial.
"When
Greek Week came around, we really wanted to look at our own community, the MTSU
student population and do something to give back to them," she said.
This is
FSL's first time doing a food drive for the pantry, and representatives
believed that a little competition between the organizations wouldn't hurt.
FSL
organizations were encouraged to bring in items as part of the Greek Week
championship. In return, for each item turned in, the group responsible would
be given a point.
“Competition
always makes things a bit more fun," Merritt said.
The Interfraternity
Council Executive Board, the governing body of interfraternity groups on
campus, and the Panhellenic Executive Board agreed to match donations. The Panhellenic
Executive Board matched the top donation, which resulted in 200 items, and
the Interfraternity Executive Board matched with 200 packs of Ramen noodles.
The
overall winner of the competition was the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
For more
information about the MTSU Student Food Pantry, including operating hours,
drop-off times and needed items, visit http://www.mtsu.edu/foodpantry/.
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