In a campus-wide effort to provide food options for the less fortunate, the Saint Mary's College's Office for Civic and Social Engagement (OCSE) will be collecting boxed and canned food for a local project called Neighbors in Need this month.
Saint Mary's was invited to participate by local news station WSBT-TV, alongside different agencies that plan to help with the drive. The project runs throughout the month until Feb. 12. The food will then be collected at WSBT-TV studios on Feb. 15.
"The food being collected is for the Northern Indiana Food Bank," Carrie Call, director of the College's OCSE, said.
The Food Bank, located in South Bend, helps to provide food for those in need throughout the county's limits.
Students are encouraged to get involved, and large boxes are placed in the residence halls for their canned or boxed donations.
"As always, the good thing about a food drive is that for a very small amount of money you can buy a single can of food," said Call.
The Food Bank is hoping that the relatively cheap prices of canned food will encourage student involvement.
"Going out of my way to give food is a small price to pay to know that someone has food in their belly tonight," Taylor Chamberlain, a sophomore, said.
The OCSE has held annual food drives before, but this is the first time it has been in collaboration with WSBT-TV. In the past, it worked side by side with the Saint Mary's cross country team to collect and count donations to redistribute to local food banks.
The OCSE has tried to put a new spin on food donations in the past, by, for instance, asking for once a week canned food donations during the Lenten season.
