In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the SUU Community Engagement Center is hosting a service event Saturday, Jan. 30.
Due to campus restrictions the first two weeks of the semester, the CEC postponed the MLK Day of Service. The service event will be held from 12-1:30 p.m. at the Southwest Technical College located at 510 W 800 S.
Masks are required during the service event and pizza will be served at conclusion of the activity.
Pam Branin, the director of the CEC, explained that the service project will involve moving the second Helping Our People Eat pantry at STECH to a new, larger location in the same building.
The project will include boxing up food, disassembling and moving the shelves, moving the refrigerator and freezer, and then reassembling shelves and re-shelving food.
“We also need to move a few hundred cases of canned food that we have in storage on site there,” Branin said. “It’s not a complicated project, but many hands will definitely help make it a faster, more efficient process.”
According to Branin, the HOPE pantry helps provide students with access to adequate and nutritious food.
“We know that close to 50% of SUU students struggle at some point in their SUU career with food insecurity. It’s likely that STECH students face food insecurity at that rate as well,” Branin said.
HOPE pantry service leaders Sara McGriff, Jessica Sahagun and Samantha Slade encourage SUU students to come and participate.
“We are hoping students will come to help us move to see all of the amazing opportunities that the CEC provides and all the food that our HOPE Pantry provides to SUU students,” they said.
The three service leaders also hope that students will have an increased knowledge of the food insecurity that many of the students face throughout the community and realize that this is an opportunity to serve those fellow students by attending this service event.
“Working with the HOPE Pantry is a perfect project to commemorate MLK Day,” Branin said. “Martin Luther King Jr. was an advocate for justice and equity. The HOPE pantries address one of the most essential and basic needs, food and food justice.”
Email hopepantry@suu.edu for more information.
Story by: Elizabeth Armstrong
news@suunews.net
Photo courtesy of the Community Engagement Center
