March 24, 2015

 

Contacts:

Office for Community Involvement, 896-5815
Carmen Price, University Relations & Communications, 657-2266

 

The one-day event will be held Tuesday, April 7, 9-5, outside McMullen Hall at 1500 University Drive.

 

MSU BILLINGS NEWS SERVICES — MSU Billings Office for Community Involvement and the MSUB Honors Program invites the community to participate in a one-day food drive for area food pantries.

 

ad for Food Drive

On April 7, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., food donations can be brought to volunteers stationed outside of McMullen Hall. The donated food will be lined around the McMullen Hall building and benefit Family Service, Inc. of Billings, an effort of the Honors Program capstone course in conjunction with OCI, aiming to prevent homelessness and relieving poverty in Yellowstone County.

 

As part of the Honors 499 capstone course, students are working with administrators at Family Service, Alliance on Again, and the No Kid Hungry AmeriCorps project on various hunger interventions, Honors instructor Virginia Mermel said.

 

“Students have learned about the high rate of food insecure children in Yellowstone County from my work with BackPack Meals and Teen Pantry Programs,” Mermel said. 

 

“We’ve used information gathered by the previous class to work on improving some aspects of food distribution in the community,” said Lacey Mogan, an Honors student and the OCI service program coordinator. “The previous class identified four possible pathways by which to improve food distribution including addressing access issues, increasing recycling, increasing reclamation and improving donations.”

 

Donation needs include non-perishable items such as canned vegetables and fruits, tuna, chicken, beans and soups. Boxed pastas, rice and cereals are also in demand.

 

"Family service does an awesome job of distributing food to those in need throughout the area,” said Mogan. “This community is so generous and I’m excited to be a part of something so great.”

 

The department, student organization or athletic team that collects the most food in its name will win a pizza party sponsored by Sodexo.

 

For more information, contact Lacey Mogan in the Office for Community Involvement at 896-5815 or srvprojcoord@msubillings.edu.