A few Knott Hall residents have come up with a Grab ‘n Go initiative for students to alleviate some of the pressure surrounding what to do with extra dining hall swipes.
“I only go once, twice, three times a week,” sophomore Dre Contreras, one of the Knott residents, said. “I have some other friends that go only four or five times. We just decided let’s put these swipes to good use.”
The residents lead a walkover from Knott Hall to North Dining Hall on Fridays for a Grab ‘n Go trip, on top of collecting snacks to donate throughout the week. They then deliver the snacks themselves using their own transportation. The group works with the club Irish for the Ronald McDonald House to provide snacks for the Ronald McDonald House in South Bend.
Since the initiative was started four weeks ago, the program has grown. Contreras estimated the initiative has collected 600 to 700 snacks this past week, while overall it has collected around 2,000 snacks.
“At first, the idea was it was just going to be our friend group and then we decided, ‘Why not get everyone in Knott involved?’” Contreras said.
The initiative is not affiliated with Campus Dining, but the Grab ‘n Go workers are responsive and supportive of the initiative, Contreras said.
Junior Robert Garrett is another Knott resident behind the movement. Garrett said the group was given a tour by one of the Grab ‘n Go workers to see “how they operate and how it works.”
The Knott residents are looking to slowly spread this movement to a few dorms before eventually reaching the entire campus community.
“We definitely want to encourage other dorms to do the same and not let these swipes go to waste,” Contreras said. “Because all across campus, it’s gotta be hundreds maybe even 1,000 or 2,000 swipes wasted each week.”
As more dorms begin to get involved, the group also wants to inspire these dorms to pick their own organization and charity with which to work.
“Ronald McDonald does really good work, but I’m sure there are a lot of places we haven’t even really looked into that could also use the snacks,” Garrett said.
The group has already reached out to Flaherty Hall and also plans to reach out to Dunne Hall to see if they’d be interested in the project. Representatives from Welsh Family Hall have reached out to the creators of the initiative themselves.
“We’ve been taking a lot of stuff over there, but we figured if we can get four or five dorms involved even, we can make even more of a difference and get a lot of snacks over there,” Garrett said.
