Meals That Matter
Students help feed hungry families locally and internationally
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
The Office of Community Service and the Office of Religious Life led two recent hunger-relief events, helping more than 100 student-volunteers address a complex social issue from different angles.
Approximately 70 of the students and several staff members turned out last Saturday to help provide meals for children in Ebola-stricken West Africa. Working in assembly-line fashion—and bolstered by entertainment by a student DJ and student a cappella groups—they packaged 10,320 meals in less than two hours and raised $3,461 to pay for the food through the Stop Hunger Now nonprofit organization.
Jiyeong “Faith” Park ’16 helped organize and publicize the event along with other students. She decided to get involved after volunteering at the Stop Hunger Now warehouse in Philadelphia during a Dickinson interfaith service trip last year.
“Hunger is such an important issue because it impacts the lives of so many people,” said Park, whose self-developed major combines her interests in international development and public health. “It’s so powerful to me that each meal costs just 29 cents to produce and can feed up to six people [in the developing world].”
During a separate event, first-year students worked at a local food bank, Project S.H.A.R.E., to help local families in need. Led by student-leaders Heather Geist ’15, Tara Black ’16 and Olivia Falcey ’17, they packaged more than 500 Thanksgiving meals for families in Carlisle, Pa.
“We make a coordinated effort to do service in a cohesive way,” said Donna Hughes, director of community service and religious life, adding that Dickinson student volunteers have many year-round opportunities to give back and that her office also employs 17 students to help lead the way.
Learn more
- Civic Engagement
- First-Year Mentors
- “Never Giving Up, Always Giving Back”
- “Eat, Sleep, Serve, Repeat”
- Latest News
Published November 20, 2014