Imagine how many people could be fed with 5,000 loaves of bread, 4,200 cans of soup or 4,700 boxes of cereal. Any of these would roughly equal the 5,000 pounds of food UNH Greek organizations Lambda Chi Alpha and Delta Xi Phi hope to raise for the Dover Food Pantry in the upcoming North American Food Drive.
After raising 1,000 pounds of food in last year's drive, the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity hopes, with the new partnership of the Delta Xi Phi sorority, the drive will be a huge success and collect five times more food than last year. The weeklong drive begins Saturday and runs until Nov. 1.
"In the past, Lambda Chi Alpha has always put on the food drive without the help of another student organization," said Brandon Kraus, the Lambda Chi Alpha Philanthropy chair. "With twice the manpower we hope to raise a lot more pounds than in the past." The North American Food Drive is held annually by over 220 chapters and colonies of Lambda Chi Alpha throughout North America and raised over 2.5 million pounds in 2007. This year, Lambda Chi Alpha hopes to raise over 3 million pounds and with a large increase from the UNH chapter and the help from the women at Delta Xi Phi, the objective appears within reach.
In order to accomplish their goal, Lambda Chi Alpha and Delta Xi Phi are placing bags for food retrieval in various locations on campus and sending out letters asking for donations from residents of Durham and surrounding towns. Donation boxes can be found at any of the following UNH buildings: Christensen, Engelhardt, Hetzel, Lord, Mills, SERC C, Williamson and Thompson halls. Other locations include MUB 122, the Discovery Office, the Whittemore Center, the Hamel Recreation Center, Field House 167 and inside Health Services.
The food drive couldn't come at a better time for New Hampshire, with many of the food pantries across the state having a difficult time maintaining a consistent supply of food. Last week, Foster's Daily Democrat reported Gerry's Food Pantry in Rochester, N.H., was at an "absolute low" in September before some helpful donations came in.
Cornucopia Food Pantry in Durham has also spoken of its recent struggles.
"We have very little of certain items, such as paper products, health products, applesauce, sauces, rice, eggs, meats and frozen foods," said Rev. Larry Brickner-Wood, the executive director of Cornucopia, the food pantry established in 1997 to serve the UNH community, students, staff, faculty and their families.
Cornucopia feeds about 1,215 people per year, not including the 368 food baskets they put together three times a year, around Thanksgiving or during winter and spring. They also allow UNH students to volunteer and help needy families in the holiday season for events like community dinners and the annual Thanksgiving celebration.
Cornucopia doesn't receive any food from the upcoming North American Food Drive but Brickner-Wood said he "applauds the program" and likes students are becoming more active in helping the state's food pantries.
Other student organizations are helping in their own ways, like UNH's Organic Gardening Club, which grows and donates food every year for Cornucopia.
Kraus said the Lambda Chi Alpha chapter chose to donate their food to the Dover Food Pantry because they have worked closely with them in the past and will continue to help them this year. Kraus doesn't count out the possibility of reaching other pantries in the future, however, and hopes the food drive can eventually stretch across the state's southern region and help other places like Cornucopia.
"Our main goal is to help families in need throughout the New Hampshire Seacoast area," said Kraus. "We hope that the North American Food Drive will continue to grow larger at a local scale so that we will eventually generate large enough numbers to be able to donate food to several food pantries."
And even if Lambda Chi Alpha and Delta Xi Phi can't meet the 5,000 pounds they hope to collect, they said any amount would help those living in the Seacoast community.
"Although we hope to reach our goal of 5,000 pounds, we will still consider any number of pounds collected to be a success because all foods collected go to families in need during the holiday season," said Kraus. "Whatever amount of food collected will be sure to make at least some families happy."
Be the first to comment on this article!