For students with MSU meal plans, helping the community could be as easy as swiping their MSU IDs.
Chris Burtley, an international relations senior and intercultural aide in Emmons Hall, helped plan a food drive sponsored by the Office of Cultural and Academic Transitions, or OCAT,
OCAT is encouraging students living on campus to donate food from Sparty’s Convenience Stores between now and Thursday to the MSU Food Bank, the first food drive of its kind for OCAT, Burtley said. The drive began yesterday.
Students with meal plans can collect food to donate to the drive for free by swapping one of their meals in the cafeteria with a Combo-X-Change from Sparty’s. Students can bring the food from their Combo-X-Change to a bin outside of the Sparty’s Convenience Store in Brody Square to be donated to the MSU Food Bank.
“We want to make it easy for students,” Burtley said. “If they don’t want to go out and buy food, they already bought their Combo-X-Change.”
Burtley said for students with meal plans, donating their Combo-X-Changes for the next few days makes helping the community easier because students are not required to go to a store and purchase nonperishable food items.
Although OCAT is accepting both nonperishable items from grocery stores and from Sparty’s, as well as toiletry items, Burtley expects many of the students to donate food directly from their Combo-X-Changes.
“While (the food drive) concentrates on food, OCAT will not turn down anything students wish to donate,” Burtley said.
Director of the MSU Food Bank Nate Smith-Tyge said the food bank sees an increase in donations during the holiday season.
But it is important for people to remember that the MSU Food Bank is always in need of donations, Smith-Tyge said.
“I think people (who come to the MSU Food Bank) enjoy being able to get a diversity of things” Smith-Tyge said. “It is nice to have variety, so it isn’t the same thing every time people come.”
Andrew Tyus, a human biology junior and intercultural aide in Armstrong Hall, said OCAT hopes by donating to the MSU Food Bank, students will be able to feel a stronger sense of community.
“We teamed up with the MSU Food Bank because we thought it would be better to give something back to the MSU community … for the holiday season,” Tyus said.
Smith-Tyge said the MSU Food Bank currently is in need of financial donations, toiletries and food.
If students wish to give financial donations to the food bank, OCAT asks that students donate directly to the MSU Food Bank, Burtley said.
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