Jerrod Nielsen
The Siskiyou
Photo by Sean Jeter
Student Kelsey Miller contributes to OSPIRG's Hunger Clean Up event by weeding the beds.The
annual Hunger Clean Up broke boundaries with a day of community service
and pledges to curb hunger and poverty on local, national and
international levels.
The national event was hosted in Ashland by
the Southern Oregon University chapter of the Oregon Student Public
Interest Research Group. Half of the funds raised will help support
Uncle Food’s Diner, which provides one free meal a week in Ashland.
Mandara Matson-Bell, OSPIRG hunger and homelessness student coordinator explained the purpose and goals of the event.
“It has an equally national, international and local effect,” she said.
The
other half of donations will be split with 35 percent going to
education, training and research on combating hunger and homelessness
on a national level. The remaining 15 percent will be pooled to provide
a year’s worth of emergency medical supplies and food for refugees in
Darfur and the Sudan. It will also help support The Girl Child Network
in Zimbabwe that works to protect young girls from abuse.
Teams
of five people each had goals of raising $500. By taking donations from
friends and family members, each participant pledged to spend one day
helping local organizations. Last year local efforts raised $1000
according to OSPIRG Campus Coordinator Sayla Eisner-Mix.
Groups
volunteered with the Ecological Coalition of the Siskiyou’s Community
Garden on campus and also with the Jackson County Fuel Committee
splitting wood.
Other groups conducted a canned food drive to donate to the Ashland Emergency Food Bank.
“We’re trying to break the Guiness World Record for most food brought in, in one day,” Matson-Bell said.
Student
PIRG chapters all over the country participated in the annual event
which is a project of the national student campaign against hunger and
homelessness.
“It’s a really simple way a community can get
together,” Matson-Bell said. “In times when the economy is down people
give less.”
For more information on the Hunger Clean-Up visit www.hungercleanup.org .
