By: Heaven Osborne
The Tennessee Board of Regents 24th Annual Food Drive began taking donations Nov. 1 and will continue through Dec. 9. Students will be able to contribute to the food drive until Nov. 29 and faculty and staff can continue to make food item and monetary donations until the end of the food drive on Dec. 9. All non-perishable food items are accepted, however there are some specific needs for the food drive this year. All monetary donations are accepted as well. The office and class who gives the most donations will receive a pizza party before the end of the semester.
Each year the Tennessee Board of Regents issues a challenge between the community colleges and colleges of applied technology across Tennessee to collect food items for students during the holiday months. According to the Tennessee Board of Regents, “The Annual Food Drive Challenge was conceived by the College System’s Student Government Presidents’ Council 22 years ago as a project to help fellow students and others in their communities in need. And students and the campus communities have kept the annual tradition going”. The purpose of the food drive is to combat food insecurities throughout the holidays. The food and monetary donations taken in at Vol State during the food drive will contribute to Thanksgiving dinner supplies that will be given out to students on campus.
“This year we are having a Thanksgiving bag food giveaway where we will hand out food for our students to have a nice Thanksgiving meal. Students are currently signing up for this opportunity,” said Coordinator of Student Support, Tiffany Zwart.
To assemble these Thanksgiving bags, student support is asking that food donations consist of green beans, stuffing, French fried onions, corn, cranberry sauce, and mac and cheese. Each food item brought in will be a point toward the participating class or office and each dollar donated will be counted as two food items. Food items can be placed in the clear Feed bins on campus and monetary donations can be dropped off through the Foundation Office or in Wood 215. There are many volunteers who work on this project each year to bring food to students and the community.
“On our campus the Office of Student Engagement & Support collects, counts, and runs the food drive in collaboration with The Foundation Office who takes in the monetary donations. We have several Feed volunteers who will be collecting food from our bins, counting the cans, and helping us organize the food on the shelves,” said Coordinator Zwart.
Along with Student Engagement, The Foundation Office, and The Feed; Vol State faculty and students and have contributed significantly to the food drive in previous years.
The Radiologic Technology Program has run a challenge between its first- and second-year students to bring in the most food and last year the Access Center brought in the most donations from staff, said Zwart. In 2021, Vol State raised $8,097.00 during the food drive.
According to The Board of Regents, the college who is able to bring in the most donations will win “bragging rights”. Likewise, the faculty office and class at Vol State who can bring in the most donations will each win a pizza party. For the winning faculty office, the pizza party will be the week before the holiday break. For the winning class, the pizza party will be the week before exams.
So, Vol State students and faculty, join the 24th Annual TBR Food Drive Challenge and give back to the community.
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