The Division for Student Affairs personnel staked their claim to community engagement and displayed the Giving Green spirit recently by donating more than 1,350 pounds of food to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina.
Donations from the 245 student affairs staff members will support the food bank’s Backpack Program, which sends a backpack full of food home on weekends and holidays with children at risk of hunger. Backpack items include peanut butter, tuna or chicken, breakfast bars, and macaroni and cheese, and other ready-to-eat or easy-to-prepare foods.
Contributions were collected at the division’s spring planning meeting at which Second Harvest Food Bank representative Shay Merritt delivered a short presentation on the children at risk of hunger in the Metrolina region. She explained that 15.7 percent of the food bank’s service area population lives in poverty, including almost 185,000 children and seniors. She also spoke on the other ways to give to the Second Harvest Food Bank through volunteer opportunities at their regional distribution warehouse and financial support.
Photo: Arthur Jackson, vice chancellor for student affairs; members of the Division of Student Affairs; and Shay Merritt, community development coordinator with Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina.