Food drive benefits ETFB

The annual campus-wide food drive benefiting the East Texas Food Bank ended Friday, just in time for Thanksgiving.

Organizers said the University has contributed to the food bank for five years and considers the fall food drive a tradition.

“We usually do annual can food drives for Thanksgiving,” Carol Killingley, the University’s community relations and Parent Resource Centers said. “We also do other food drives in the spring, but the fall food drive is and has been our biggest food drive for over five years now. “

The total amount of food collected is expected to be released later this week.

Fliers posted around campus since Oct. 23 encouraged donors to place canned goods in bins in the University Center, the Administration Building, the library, the Patriot Center, the RBS building, the Business Building, and the BRB building.

Members of Students In Free Enterprise also placed bins in Ornelas Hall and Patriot Village.

Other organizations on campus helped collect cans, but an organizer said SIFE members contributed the most cans.

A SIFE member said the turnout for the food drive was more than expected considering the economic recession.

The East Texas Food Bank is a non-profit organization and storehouse that helps feed an average of 100,000 people annually through food drives.

The bank operates with the help of donors, volunteers, and partnerships with the Salvation Army and Meals on Wheels.

“In 2008, one in seven senior citizens is malnourished,” said Robert Bush, executive director of the East Texas Food Bank. “One in four adults and children are at risk hunger, so timing is everything with us. With the economy in such bad shape, middle class families are reaching out to us for help to feed their children.”

Bush said he is very passionate about his work.

“It is a sense of civic responsibility. We have to take care of our neighbors. We have to take care of America,” he said.

By Dawn Williams Contributing Writer