Campus Ministry concluded the most successful Food Drive in recent memory this past week, with SLUH donating over 1800 food items and over $10,000. The Food Drive helps provide the funds and supplies necessary to support the freshman service project.

Similar to previous years, each homeroom was supplied with a list of needed non-perishable food items in the week leading up to the Food Drive. The list was compiled after campus minister Julie Anderson, who runs the freshman service program, took inventory of the current supply and drew up a list of items that will be needed throughout the year. In addition to bringing in food items, students were also encouraged to donate money that could be used to buy perishable foods such as eggs, milk, and cheese.

Once donated, all of the food goes into the freshman service project. The freshman service project has freshmen prepare a meal and then serve it  at Garfield Place; a housing residence in St. Louis’s Benton Park neighborhood that offers long-term housing options to unhoused members of the community.  

As part of the freshman service project, each freshman spends an evening preparing a meal for the residents of Garfield Place, which they then eat alongside them.

“Looking back at my freshman service experience, it was a very impactful experience because I talked to al ot of different people with backgrounds different from mine,” said junior Matthew Sommers. “They had a lot of wisdom and life lessons that they shared with us which I found very impactful.” 

In addition to the good that it provides the community, the food drive also serves as the first immersion that many students receive into the realm of community service at SLUH.

“I always think it’s neat that the Food Drive is one of the first big things we do (each school year),” said campus minister Stephen Deves, who helps coordinate the drive. “It shows, in my opinion, what we’re all about, having a focus and a mindset towards helping other people. That’s just who we are, if we claim to be men and women for others, then we need to begin our year with that mindset of thinking about others.”

This year’s total significantly surpassed last year’s grand total of 1,653 food items and $4,697, and, according to records kept by Deves, featured the most donations since the 2013-14 school year.

“I was very pleased with the generosity of our community this week,” said Deves.

As a means of encouraging students to donate, Campus Ministry, as in previous years, implemented a point system to create a sense of competition. With all proceeds from the drive going directly into financing the freshman service project, it is certainly fitting that the freshman class came away with by far the most points in the friendly competition, garnering 9,275 points, which earns the entire class a dress out day in the coming weeks. The freshmen were followed by the sophomores in second place with 7,819 points, the junior class in third with 7,351, and the senior class rounded out their final SLUH Food Drive with a showing of 5,012.  Not to be outdone, faculty and staff members were also able to rack up 804 points over the course of the drive.

The point system used for the Food Drive was a single point for each can of food and two points for each dollar brought in. In order to kickstart the drive, point totals were doubled on the first day, adding more motivation to get donations in on those particular days.

“I love just seeing the camaraderie of homerooms and classes coming together, and faculty and staff coming together to support this great program,” said Deves. “I’m also a data nerd and I love numbers, so I always love getting into the stats and all of the points.”

The homeroom that came away with the most points in total turned out to be junior homeroom M222C, which was propelled to the victory by big donations on the initial “double points” day.

“On double points day, my homeroom donated over $500 because we really wanted to win,” said Zepeda, who also serves as M222C’s class council representative. “We thought there would be no better way than to knock it out of the park early and get a big head start.  I know that when I received the emails from Mr. Deves with the tally sheet for all of the grades, I was definitely looking at who could pass us and what we needed to do to stay in the lead.”

Zepeda, along with other class council members, utilized the competitive factor involved with the Food Drive to help gain more points for their own homeroom. In addition to nightly emails sent by Deves that updated points totals and helped remind students to bring in donations, class council members also sent emails of encouragement and set goals to raise a certain number of points each day.  

“I emailed my homeroom every day,” said Zepeda. “I was telling them to just keep on donating.  I would mention some homerooms that had big donations, and how we were losing some ground to them.  I also told my homeroom that I’d bring in donuts if we won, so I think that helped (incentivize them further).”

“I think (the competition) between homerooms definitely helped get more donations,” said freshman Patrick Jones. “Everyone wants their homeroom and their class to be the best, so I think it was definitely a good idea.”