Local Food Drive

Project leaders:
Lauren Sedlacek; lns5rf@mail.missouri.edu
Kat Seal; katxseal@gmail.com

About | Volunteer Opportunities | Volunteer Benefits | Project Statistics | Documents |

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About the Local Food Drive:

The Sustain Mizzou Local Food Drive is a two-part service project benefiting Missouri farmers as well as the underprivileged in the Columbia, MO area.

The first part is fund raising. For the past five years, Sustain Mizzou has joined together with other organizations to raise money on campus. In the past, SM has partnered with the Independent Aggies, Veritas, Wakonse, Mizzou 4-H, the Mizzou Environmental Club, Greeks Going Green, and several more. This project would not be possible without the sponsorship of these great organizations. Not only to the sponsor organizations provide support, they also provide volunteers to work the tables in front of Brady Fountain and Memorial Union. This is always fun because you get to meet new people and wear outrageous fruit consumes!!

The second part is purchasing. The Food Drive committee begins purchasing produce from local farmers after the fund raiser in Spring. The general rule is that the farms the food comes from need to be small operations and they need to be within 50 miles of the Columbia city limits. For the first time in 2008, we purchased ground beef from an area rancher. We have a near constant stream of eggs, and sweet potatoes are a big favorite purchase for donation too.

Volunteer opportunities:

Volunteers are a MUST in the Food Drive.
The main opportunity to volunteer is in the fall during the fundraising segment. We can never get enough volunteers at this time, so the more the merrier! We need people to:

  • Work the tables from 10am to 2:00pm Monday through Friday during the main week
  • Make posters
  • Canvas campus with signs promoting the drive
  • Go out to other organizations and ask if they would be interesting in helping with our cause. Many organizations on campus are more than willing to help!
  • To sign up to volunteer, please go to the Google Document and sign up there!

Volunteer benefits:

  • Increase valuable community service hours. More and more companies look for employees who are interested in the world around them and helping others out.
  • Gain self confidence. Whenever Pat Margherio, former Sustain Mizzou President, is asked about his experience as an apple for the Local Food Drive, he says, “I learned to speak in front of a lecture hall in an apple costume. I can speak in front of anyone now.”
  • Meet some really amazing people. In our latest drive we had volunteers who spend their hour juggling in fruit costumes. There are workers from all kinds of majors and all kinds of backgrounds, and meeting these new people is a valuable experience.

Project statistics

In 2008, Sustain Mizzou was responsible for donations of:

  • Over 300 lbs. ground beef
  • Over 200 lbs. sweet potatoes
  • Over 220 lbs. green peppers
  • ~400 dozen eggs

Documents