The Famous Maroon Band at Mississippi State University is hosting a food drive throughout the month of November, which will benefit the St. Joseph Food Pantry, one of many in the city of Starkville, Mississippi.
Sara McMahan, a junior biological engineering major and mellophone section leader in the band, organized the food drive by creating a competition between the woodwinds and brass sections to see which could bring in the most amount of food.
“We’re a really big organization and we’ve never done a really big service project, and I just thought since it’s really close to Thanksgiving that we could really make an impact because there are over 300 people in the band,” McMahan said.
McMahan said she enlisted the help of the band fraternity Kappa Kappa Psi’s president, Devin Dedeaux, a senior communication major, because the organization’s purpose is serving college band programs through service projects, fundraisers and social events.
Dedeaux said Kappa Kappa Psi’s role in the food drive is a supportive one. The organization works mainly with the logistics of storing the food and transporting it to St. Joseph’s Food Pantry.
“We used the competition aspect to try to get people to bring in more food,” Dedeaux said. 
“Kappa Kappa Psi organizes service projects roughly every month and have worked with St. Joseph’s Food Pantry in the past,” Dedeaux said.
McMahan said band members are often involved in several organizations across MSU’s campus, however, not all band members have the opportunity to be involved in many other extra-curricular activities.
“I wanted to connect everybody in a different way and make an impact in the community,” McMahan said. “It gives people who don’t really have the chance to get involved in anything an opportunity to do something other than band.”
Joe Schmidt, director of the food pantry since January, said the majority of the food they pass out comes from Mississippi Food Network, an organization whose vision is to eliminate poverty-related hunger. He also said donations fill in the gaps of what the food pantry does not receive from the food network.
Schmidt said the food pantry is the biggest outreach program St. Joseph’s Catholic Church runs and they receive donations from many different organizations and clubs from around the city.
Schmidt, a former teacher of 25 years at MSU, said he and his many volunteers passed out about 200 bags of food Saturday, one of their two distributions per month. Each bag is equipped with two protein foods, four fruits, and six vegetables; all canned or other dry storage items. 
Schmidt said the church holds a Fat Tuesday meal where members can donate money to the food pantry, which will allow the pantry to purchase food to distribute. He said last year the meal raised about $2,000.
“It’s open to anyone who qualifies, income-wise, to get food. We follow the guidelines set up by the food network,” Schmidt said. “We spend about, on average, $1,000 a month in donations to supplement our food that we don’t get from the food network and other food drives.”
Schmidt said the bags of food are only enough for about three to five days, but that it’s three to five days’ worth of food their patrons do not have to pay for. St. Joseph’s Food Pantry often collaborates with other food pantries in the city by trading or sharing their food.
“We appreciate all the outside clubs, fraternities, and organizations that provide the food or financial support,” Schmidt said. 
He said the food pantry served about 187 patrons last month, and it provides food for about 2,500 people over a year. He also said the food pantry has been like a full time job for him between keeping inventory of the food and submitting reports.
“It’s not small potatoes, but the sad thing is that the need is still out there. This is what we’re supposed to do, as Christians, is take care of others that are in need,” Schmidt said.