Dec. 2, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Megan Hitchcock or Tara Johnston
805-756-5834; scs.beyondshelter@gmail.com
Cal Poly Students Collect Thousands of Pounds of Food During Hunger Awareness Week
Cal Poly students collected thousands of pounds of food, and enough money to buy thousands more, during the annual See the Need Week.
The event, organized by the Beyond Shelter program in Cal Poly’s Student Community Services office, aims to call attention to hunger and homelessness locally and around the world. Over nine days, students held food drives at grocery stores; raised money; collected backpacks and school supplies for local homeless children; and served meals to the homeless.
The week began and ended with weekend food drives at five grocery stores Nov. 15-16 and 22-23. Over those four days, student volunteers collected 7,569 pounds of food, as well as $872 (or enough money to buy an additional 6,104 pounds). Additional fundraising throughout the week netted another $100, or about 700 pounds of food.
The food and money was given to the Food Bank Coalition of San Luis Obispo County, which provides food for homeless and low-income residents in the area. The total of 14,373 pounds of food will translate to about 10,780 meals, student organizers said.
“The hours these students put in were outstanding, and their efforts really paid off,” said Wendy Lewis, volunteer support coordinator with the Food Bank Coalition. “They just went above and beyond.”
The See the Need collections were part of the Food Bank Coalition’s annual Holiday Food Drive, in which volunteers for the coalition collect food in barrels outside local grocery stores between Nov. 1 and Dec. 21. Lewis said the See the Need efforts brought in more food and money in two weekends than the coalition ever has in its holiday drive.
See the Need coordinators also received 20 backpacks from the United Way of San Luis Obispo County and filled them with school supplies donated by students and El Corral Bookstore. And other fundraising events throughout the week netted $100 each for two local charities: Food Share and Doctors Without Borders.
For more information about See the Need Week and the Beyond Shelter program, call 805-756-5834 or e-mail to scs.beyondshelter@gmail.com.
For more about Cal Poly’s Student Community Services, visit www.studentlife.calpoly.edu/SCS/.
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