The Committee of 19, a group comprised of Mississippi State University students, is holding a food drive which began Monday and will last through Thursday. Food collected during the event will go to Golden Triangle families in need.
Preferred donations include canned goods, bags of rice and other foods high in protein.
The committee takes its name from the fact that it only costs 19 cents a day to feed a hungry child. Since the group formed, the price has risen to 25 cents a day.
Junior nutrition major and committee president Elisabeth Brooks said she wants to concentrate on fighting hunger at the local level.
“[We] think that it is extremely important to fight hunger domestically so that we can help our neighbors and the people in our community,” Brooks said. “Often people think of hungry people as only a foreign subject that does not affect the United States. This is a very false view of hunger.”
Brooks is one of the two Mississippi State students selected to attend the University Hunger Summit in Washington D.C. last month.
Group adviser Chiquita Briley, an assistant professor of food science, nutrition and health promotion, helped organize this week’s food drive.
Briley said War on Hunger is significant to the university for various reasons.
War on Hunger is a national group that originally started at Auburn University. Briley said in 2006 Benjy Mikel, head of the food science, nutrition and health promotion department, the community and University on … central community problems – food insecurity and poverty,” she said. “[It] engages students in a university-wide leadership and volunteer venture with a cause that creates a visual change within communities in Mississippi and underdeveloped countries.”
Donation barrels will be available at various locations, such as the Colvard Student Union, Allen Hall and all residence halls. Organizers will gather food about 4 p.m. each day and the total contributions will be distributed to 12 food pantries throughout the Golden Triangle area Friday.
Local Starkville food pantries benefiting from the food drive include Peter’s Rock Temple COGIC, Starkville Church of God Compassion Pantry and St. Vincent de Paul.
“Our patrons are invited to the pantry once a month,” St. Vincent de Paul local chapter president Mark Lilly said. “We verify their income is below the poverty level and that they are Oktibbeha county residents.”
Lilly said the amount of food distributed is based on family size.
“[We give] one bag of groceries for each two members of the family,” he said.
Lilly said in 2007, the local chapter of St. Vincent de Paul served 1,677 families with 2,346 bags of groceries.
The Committee of 19 coordinated last semester’s potato drop. Briley said the group raised 20,000 pounds of potatoes. The committee donated 15,000 pounds to the Mississippi Food Network, while 5,000 pounds were given to food pantries not connected to the network.
Briley said she had learned about the program at Oklahoma State University and became interested in starting a local affiliate. She said work with Mikel helped to bring the program to MSU in August.
Students who would like to help fight hunger beyond the food drive can volunteer at local food pantries or start their own food drives or fundraisers, Briley said.
Those interested in joining the Committee of 19 can contact Briley at 325-0240 or e-mail her at [email protected].