Students who normally spend weeknights raising money for Wesleyan organized a drive last week to collect canned food for communities in Connecticut.
The food drive was held by the student workers of the Red & Black Society, a calling program that raises money from alumni and parents.
Together the members of Red & Black raised 32 pounds of canned foods in a week to donate to the Connecticut Food Bank (CFB) in East Haven.
According to Mosah Fernandez-Goodman ’04, Assistant Director of the Annual Fund who also oversees operations of the calling society, the food drive is the society’s first community service project.
“The students came up with the idea for the project,” Fernandez-Goodman said. “It started with some of them saying it would be good for us to do something for the community. They came up with the concept and took it upon themselves to coordinate the project.”
The Society’s student manager P.J. Loussedes ’06, was responsible for finding the location and collecting canned foods.
In addition to the drive, the members of the Red & Black Society also spread awareness among their peers about the issue of hunger. Some of the callers got their friends to volunteer at Amazing Grace Food Pantry and Vincent DePaul Place on Main Street.
“It was a great idea to do something like this,” said Josh Hartz ’07. “We are in the business of asking alumni to give back, and it was important for us to give back to this community.”
According to Fernandez-Goodman, this food drive is the first of many community service projects that the calling society hopes to implement in the future. He added that the society is looking into building a house for Habitat for Humanity and starting a student-mentoring program for Middletown adolescents.
“It is really important to be representative of the university within the greater Middletown community,” said Katie Reid ’07.
While the food drive might have only lasted a week, the students of the Red & Black Society work arduously five days a week servicing the Wesleyan community.
“Most of Wesleyan’s money comes from tuition and the interest on the endowment,” Fernandez-Goodman said. “But the University’s expenditures exceed this, and this difference is the amount of money that has to be raised by the annual fund.”
The money that the Red & Black raises from alumni and parents goes toward the annual fund, which, according to Fernandez-Goodman, is $8 million. The money raised by the annual fund goes toward financial aid, public safety, and salaries for professors.
An unprecedented 55 percent of alumni made donations to Wesleyan this year, which Fernandez-Goodman said could be important factors in college rankings. U.S. News and World Report, for example, uses alumni contributions as an indicator of alumni’s satisfaction with a college.
“The calling program has been integral in increasing alumni participation,” he said. “They made thousands of phone calls.”
This year over 200 students have worked with the Red & Black society.
CFB works with over 500 agencies in Middlesex, New Haven, Windham, Litchfield counties.
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