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• Feeding the hungry this holiday season

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Students volunteer at the Easter Illinois Food Bank. Photo used with permission from Students Team Up to Fight Hunger.

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For more information about STUFH and its events email Jennifer Westerkamp at illinistufh@gmail.com. For more information about the Eastern Illinois Food Bank, visit www.eifoodbank.org.

As many sit in warm houses and share turkey and stuffing with loved ones this Thanksgiving, others will not be as fortunate. This is why members of the Students Team Up to Fight Hunger organization (STUFH) have joined with the Eastern Illinois Food Bank to prevent hunger in the local area. Jennifer Westerkamp, a senior in Dietetics and President of the University of Illinois chapter of STUFH, started the chapter this semester after doing a research project on how the university could stop hunger. Westerkamp said she hopes that STUFH will be one way to do this and that the group will also help students on campus understand the needs of the local community.

“People on college campuses are in this bubble and[they] don’t realize this problem that is so close to[them],” Westerkamp said.

The campus’ STUFH is part of the national organization that was founded in 1998 after a college student decided to perform a pilot project to collect food for the needy. More than 1,000 pounds of food was raised. Since then, the organization’s mission has been to connect colleges and universities around the nation with local food banks. Westerkamp and the university’s chapter of STUFH continue the mission and meet regularly to fundraise, collect food and volunteer at the Eastern Illinois Food Bank.

In partnership with other local organizations such as STUFH, the bank provides food to those in Eastern Illinois who are in need of a food source. The bank has been around for 21 years and also enlists volunteers and agencies to provide a variety special programs and services to local families.

Like other organizations that help with the bank, STUFH works closely with the bank and uses the service as a means to reaching out to the local area. This Thanksgiving, the group will volunteer with Eastern Illinois Food Bank and donate more money to the bank’s services. STUFH has also held food drives and canning events to help the hungry. The canning events, known as “Canning at Night” give students the chance stand on busy street corners and local businesses with cans and ask for donations.

So far, the group has raised nearly $400 and hopes to raise $1000 by the end of the spring semester. Westerkamp says that she feels excited about the drives.

“It feels really good,” said Westerkamp. “I just thought it was awesome that it is so easy to make a big difference.”

Westerkamp is also looking forward to the larger food drive toward the end of the semester where the 25 member organization plans to complete their goal of raising 100 pounds of food and can goods for the year.

Though, Westerkamp said that she hopes to reach goals comparable to other chapters of the national organization while also reaching out more to the local community.

“I realized how easy it would be for the campus to help with the food bank,” she said “It just seems more personal.”