Students pitch in for hunger and homelessness

OSPIRG helped organize students for the annual Hunger Cleanup day last week. Photo courtest of Lauren Siegel.

Twenty students gathered Saturday to pull up their sleeves and volunteer as part of the annual spring “Hunger Clean Up.”

Hosted locally by the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group, the event is a nationwide effort to address the problems of hunger and homelessness.

“Our volunteers have been fundraising for the last month, and all of the funds are being donated to national relief agencies,” said Krystle Williams, Hunger Clean Up coordinator.

“Our fundraising coupled with our volunteer effort will impact hunger at both a local and national level.”

Southern Oregon University students from OSPIRG and from the Civic Engagement Club helped to weed paths at the Ecology Center of the Siskiyous community garden on campus and to gather food donations for the Ashland Food Bank.

Kicking off the day of service, SOU professor and city council member, Carol Voisin, spoke about the importance of community engagement.

“To volunteer to collect food for those who are hungry is to take seriously the moral imperative to feed the hungry in our community,” Voison said about the event.

Every spring, campuses nationwide unite for the Hunger Cleanup to address the problems of hunger and homelessness by participating in one of the largest student-driven days of service and fundraisers in the country.

OSPIRG students spent the month leading up to their cleanup raising funds to address some of the most pressing problems in our country.

The fundraising effort culminated in a day of service in their community to address needs best met by volunteering directly.

Over its twenty-five year history, the Cleanup has made a significant impact, involving over 150,000 volunteers and raising more than $2 million for local, national, and international hunger and homelessness relief efforts. Campuses from all over recruited student leaders to form teams with their friends and living units and raised over $35,000 to fight hunger.

This year, OSPIRG is working to address the problems families and individuals across the country are having putting food on the table.

The funds raised will be donated to the National Student Campaign Against Hunger to expand the number of students fighting poverty on campus nation-wide and for Feeding America, the backup support system for most of the nations’ food banks.

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