Dennis Wahlman / The Mainstream

Food Drive To Benefit Project Cans Campus Pantry

By Courtnee Morin · The Mainstream
Published May 2, 2012

One of the student groups in Paula Usrey's Speech 219 Small Group Discussion class is hosting a food drive during the week of May 9.

The proceeds of the food drive will be given to Projects Cans, the UCC food bank, and donations should consist of nonperishable foods.

The campus food bank started as a sociology class project in 2008 and a school wide program in 2009. Project Cans is a storage room converted into a food pantry located by the loading dock of the Campus Center between the back of the bookstore and the kitchen.

Currently most donations to the food bank come from the Rotary Club and canned food drives put together by ASUCC. If the food bank runs low, a school budget for grocery shopping resupplies the food bank.

The ASUCC food drives generally raise about 200 to 400 units of canned or boxed food for each drive. ASUCC is planning on its own drive soon. “I was planning on trying a school wide challenge next month,” said ASUCC Business Manager Ben Horvath.

To donate food supplies to the ASUCC drive or the Speech 219 drive, students can bring nonperishable items such as canned or boxed foods to the counseling center. The food cannot have an expiration date prior to the month of the donation.

To receive from the food bank, students must complete a referral form. These are given out by the school counselors. The form must also be signed by a counselor to validate a financial need for the food boxes, and the form must then be given to Horvath or Marjan Coester who will stock the food box.

Students may only receive food boxes three times a term. The boxes provide three days of breakfast, lunch and dinner if rationed as planned.

Depending on the food bank supplies, the boxes may include canned vegetables and beans, soups, macaroni and cheese, pasta-a-roni or rice-a-roni, spaghetti and sauce, chicken and tuna helper, cereals, oatmeal, nutrition bars, peanut butter and jelly, mashed potatoes and cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soups for casseroles.