KU News Release

Two KU food drives yield an estimated $18,000 in donations for local pantries

LAWRENCE — Almost as quickly as donations arrived at area food pantries last weekend from two food drives at the University of Kansas, families arrived at the pantries on Monday to select goods for their weekly meals.

Jeanette Collier, coordinator for Douglas County ECKAN Inc., estimated the two campus food drives, one from Late Night in the Phog on Oct. 17 and the other from homecoming’s Stuff the Bus on Oct. 19, yielded $18,000 worth of nonperishable items.

The donations arrived in time to replenish supplies for the Just Food program in Lawrence that includes ECKAN, Trinity Interfaith Food Pantry and the Salvation Army. All three pantries were nearly empty last week, Collier said.

“ECKAN was down to a few jars of peanut butter and maybe some cans of vegetables last week,” Collier said. “We want to thank the generous KU basketball fans for their donated cans and often bags of food to local food pantries. Many of the Stuff the Bus donations included cartons of canned food. Pantries were able to restock their shelves and begin serving consumers again on Monday morning. The participating pantries want to express their sincere gratitude to the KU athletic department, KU students and all KU staff who assisted in promoting these food drives.”

Two more student food drives are planned for Oct. 31 and Nov. 8.

On Friday, Oct. 31, the Concerned Active and Aware Students group in KU’s Center for Community Outreach is sponsoring its sixth annual “Trick or Treat So Others Can Eat” food drive. Chelsea Mertz, Topeka junior and co-chair for Concerned Active and Aware Students, said she expects this to be the biggest year for the Halloween night food drive. More than 75 students have volunteered to deliver fliers to Lawrence residences announcing that they will come door-to-door collecting food donations.

On Saturday, Nov. 8, fans attending the women’s volleyball game against Texas Tech at 7 p.m. in the Horejsi Family Athletics Center will be admitted for $3 when they bring nonperishable donations or offer a cash or check donation to ECKAN/Just Food. In addition, each fan making a food contribution will receive a coupon for a free sandwich from Jersey Mike’s Sub Shop in Lawrence. Normally, women’s volleyball tickets cost $8 for adults and $5 for children, seniors, faculty and staff. KU students are admitted free with their KU Cards.

Contributions at Late Night in the Phog, KU’s annual basketball season opening event, yielded about $8,000 worth of nonperishable items. The Late Night contributions were the most Collier has seen in recent years. She estimated donations easily quadrupled this year over the past two years at Late Night.

KU students collected more than 9,700 canned food items for Stuff the Bus, a campuswide food drive conducted as part of the beginning of Homecoming Week. The contribution was valued at about $10,000.

Emily Schuster, Larned junior and homecoming co-chair for campus and community events, said greek and nongreek groups competed for homecoming award points by trying to collect the greatest number of canned goods.

KU’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, representing all 16 of the university’s athletic teams, collected the most: a total of 2,558 cans. Students from Delta Delta Delta sorority and Kappa Sigma fraternity teamed up to collect 2,448 canned items.

Rising costs of food and other goods are pushing area food pantries to serve more residents. The Just Food pantries serve about 1,200 to 1,500 people a month and half of those are children.

“We are seeing many, many new faces,” Collier said.

On Monday alone, patrons from 75 households arrived at ECKAN to replenish or supplement their food supplies. Collier estimated that more would be needed especially in January, February and March.

“Most of the food drives come at the end of the year. In the first three months of the year, there are almost no food drives,” Collier said.

This fall, three KU faculty and staff members are working with Kansas Athletics Inc. and KU’s Center for Community Outreach to encourage better coordination of campus food drives. Their goal is to supply area food pantries year round. Ann Weick, dean emeritus of the School of Social Welfare; Angela Lumpkin, the Gene A. Budig teaching professor in education; and Marlesa Roney, vice provost for Student Success, are coordinating campus food drives.

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