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Students in Lafayette’s Landis Community Outreach Center are leading a variety of food donation initiatives and awareness programs for Hunger and Homelessness Week, Nov. 12-16.
“The ultimate goal of Hunger and Homelessness Week is to make the Lafayette campus aware of the unequal distribution of wealth that prevails in our local community and in the world as a whole,” says Erin O’Brien ’02, a civil and environmental engineering major from Carlisle, Pa., and captain of the Outreach Center’s Community Renewal Team that will run the week’s events. “We hope that such awareness will spur students to action, which could take the form of political advocacy, financial support to non-profit organizations, or involvement with the needy in our local community.”
Before the official campaign week beings, the Alpha Phi sorority will organize food shipments from Second Harvest for ProJeCt of Easton Saturday, Nov. 10. Christine Bender ’04, a neuroscience major from Gibsonia, Pa., is overseeing that effort.
Kristen Radecsky ’04, an electrical and computer engineering major from Flemington, N.J., is organizing publicity, which will include table tents in dining halls, a banner in the Farinon Center, and mass mailings. Kim Miller ’03, a chemical engineering major from Portland, Ore., is overseeing the OxFam Fast Booths at the Farinon Center and Marquis Hall, where Outreach Center staff will encourage students to donate their Friday meal equivalent or flex dollars to OxFam from noon-1 p.m. throughout the week. OxFam is a privately funded organization dedicated to creating lasting solutions to hunger, poverty, and social injustice through long-term partnerships with poor communities around the world.
Led by Bender, student participants will sleep on the Quad in cardboard boxes beginning 10 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, to experience and bring attention to one aspect of the life of a homeless person.
O’Brien will oversee a Hunger and Homelessness Banquet, which will simulate the unequal distribution of food and resources in the world 5-7 p.m. Thursday in the Landis Atrium, Farinon Center.
Organized by Gina Lamendella ’04, a biochemistry major from Staten Island, N.Y., a Faces of Homelessness brown bag discussion will feature residents of the Safe Harbor shelter in Easton, who will share their stories noon-1 p.m. Friday in Interfaith Chapel, Hogg Hall.
Later that day, students will make brown bag lunches and deliver them to homeless people on the streets of New York City. Tessa Shambaugh ’04, a government and law major from Flower Mound, Texas, will lead sandwich-making 7-8:30 p.m. in the Farinon Center. Students will meet at 8:30 p.m. in front of the Williams Center for the Arts to leave for New York.