5/5/08
Chiquita Briley of Mississippi State University writes in with great news on the end of the first food drive with the students at Mississippi State:

Hello Mr. Kahn,
We are FINISHED!!!!! Today the food pantries came and picked up their food. We had a total of 1,544 pounds and we served 7 pantries/group homes. I have attached the posters that the students created to put the word out on the food drive. Also we have a face book page called the Committee of 19. Please if you think other people that visit your website might want to be a part- by all means have them join. We probably will be posting more "conversation pieces" as we continue next semester. Also I wanted you to see our 1 minute of fame on the local TV station. (LINK)

Also we were featured in Student Express on the Miss State website, www.msstate.edu. Underneath the picture is the box called "student express". After the letter from the Interim President we are the 4th story with a picture. Thanks so much for just creating the idea of an end of the year food drive. It was work- but it was fulfilling work especially when you know that someone will be able to have food in their cupboard.

Peace,

Chiquita

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Along with this, Patti Drapala of the MSU Department of Agricultural Communications, sends this note:

It was a pleasure to talk with you yesterday and interview you for my article on Mississippi State University's end-of-semester food drive effort. I have attached my article, a jpeg photo and a cutline identifying the students the photo for your Web site and other publicity for STUFH. Please let me know if you need anything else.
(Click here to read.)

4/24/08
Robert Srodulski of God's Pantry Food Bank in Lexington, Kentucky writes with some big news:

The annual Transylvania University Campus Sing food drive is over. In one day, the Greeks at Transy collected and donated 28,709 pounds to our foodbank.

Outstanding work by both Transylvania University and God's Pantry Food Bank.

4/14/08
The link below tells about the first annual move out drive at the University of Pennsylvania. This shows how large universities like Penn are joining the ever growing movement to recycle items from trash to treasure.

www.upenn.edu/housing/pennmoves

The site is being updated as more organizations join and as more information becomes available.

3/31/08
A great example of how to work with the STUFH program in your local area is represented in this letter from Ms. Gina M. Wekke, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education:

Hello Campus Compact Members:

I am forwarding Mr. Daniel Kahn's message (see below) about Students Team Up To Fight Hunger (STUFH) that we have supported in years past. The idea is to collect unopened food as you leave campus for the summer and notify local food banks to pick it up to help the local and regional food banks. Bins will be provided to make it simple for you to donate. Someone on campus can be the contact/catalyst, so please coordinate your efforts with the appropriate officials. Several Oklahoma institutions have participated in the past (see below). We want to know if your institution contributes so we can spotlight your efforts in the Oklahoma Campus Compact newsletter. The following institutions have participated in the past. Please go to the web site provided and make a difference!

Rogers State University - Claremore University
Oklahoma City University
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater
Oklahoma University at Norman
Oral Roberts University
University of Central Oklahoma
University of Tulsa

- Gina

3/14/08
Jeanna Kindle of the LA Regional Food Bank writes in with this note coinciding witht he start of the upcoming food drive season:

I just wanted to take a few minutes to once again thank you for your wonderful support and partnership. STUFH is bringing great attention to the growing need to feed throughout the country.

Each year, the numbers from the STUFH program continue to grow. This year, we're looking forward to getting even more colleges and universities involved as we host our first annual city-wide food drive, which will be part of the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank 35th Anniversary celebration.

We appreciate your time, commitment, and enthusiasm. Keep up the fantastic work!

3/05/08
Maryville University in St. Louis, MO is organizing a spring food drive with STUFH on May 1-2, taking place in all residence halls on campus. Information with contact is below:

As you begin to pack up and move home for the summer, help us feed the hungry by donating your unused non-parishable food items to St.Louis Area Food Bank. You can place your items in the food bins in your laundry room in your apartment building or residence hall. We will also be collecting clothes and any furniture that you will no longer need! For more information email arandolph@maryville.edu.

2/20/08
Jenny Westerkamp at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign is doing a great job with the STUFH chapter for the Eastern Illinois Foodbank. She wrote in with this message:

To update you, National Youth Service day is sometime in April and so this fraternity asked STUFH to help with a huge food drive (community-wide) for the Eastern Illinois Foodbank, so that's exciting. Also we are in the process of coordinating a benefit dinner for the food bank. The local grocery store and Women's Volleyball team, along with some other organizations, are going to help support it.

1/04/08
A note of an earlier news story from the Chamoagne-Urbana, IL area was sent in. It talks about the work between STUFH and the Eastern Illinois Food Bank during the holiday season. The article, titled "Feeding the hungry this holiday season", can be found here.

11/26/07
Neither the chill nor the early hour dampened the enthusiasm of 100 Mississippi State University students who gave up their weekend beauty sleep to bag 20,000 pounds of sweet potatoes for the Mississippi Food Network on October 20, 2007.

The first-ever potato drop held on campus was part of the network’s on-going effort to distribute donated produce to food pantries across the state. At the Palmeiro Center parking lot, students stuffed the potatoes into 10-pound bags in less than 90 minutes and loaded them onto the network’s 18-wheeler headed back to Jackson.

Chiquita Briley is adviser to the “MSU Committee of 19,” a student organization that plans to work with the Society of St. Andrew and other charitable groups to conduct a “War on Hunger” campaign of education, research and outreach. She sent the following photos of the event:

11/15/07
A note from the University of Illinois and the success they had with starting a STUFH chapter:

I wanted to let you know that the first semester of STUFH here at U of I is going well! We have volunteered at the Eastern Illinois Foodbank and raised about $500 dollars for them during their Food for Families annual food and fundraiser. Actually, there was a newspaper article in the News-Gazette (the Champaign-Urbana newspaper) titled "Students have the right STUFH to fight hunger". They interviewed me about the group and how we raise money at night when people are going out to the bars carrying cash and have a more generous attitude. We only did it 4 times for two hours a night and made $500 dollars! Our next big event is a campus wide food drive at the end of the semester (1st 2 weeks in December- last week of class and finals week). We are going to put bins in all the dorms and then with enough manpower, we are going to go to all the big apartment complexes and collect like trick or treating!

I am so glad I started STUFH because I never really did any volunteering up until now and it is a really great feeling! Lisa Bralts at Eastern Illinois Foodbank is so great to work with. Other groups are starting to take notice and want to collaborate on projects, so it is a campus-wide movement!

Just thought I would keep you up-to-date!
Take care,
Jenny Westerkamp

11/07/07
In addition to the results passed along by Robert Srodulski of the God’s Pantry Food Bank of Lexington, Kentucky, a news article about the Food Drive competition was written on the web home of SEC Sports, secsports.com. The full article can be found here. STUFH hopes that this is the start of many more conference related Food Fights, and that others will follow the lead of the SEC.

10/22/07
Hopefully, STUFH can spread this successful competition to other athletic conferences around the nation:

Robert Srodulski of the God’s Pantry Food Bank of Lexington, Kentucky reports that the Southeastern Conference comprising of twelve universities competed in it’s first annual food drive this October, ‘07. Over 40,000 pounds was raised by the following participating universities:

University of Florida
University of Georgia
University of Kentucky
University of South Carolina
University of Tennessee
Vanderbilt University
University of Alabama
University of Arkansas
Auburn University
Louisiana State University
University of Mississippi
Mississippi State University

Bob notes that the first year is always the most difficult to get off the ground, and he now looks forward to this competition getting bigger and better each year. Only one team can win the “Big Game” but everyone wins when you help feed the hungry.

10/16/07
Jennifer Roberts of the 2nd Harvest Food Bank in Tallahassee sees the tremendous potential for raising food for the hungry at area colleges and universities. The FAMU Food Fight is a competition between various Greek organizations on the FAMU campus to see who can tally the highest combined volunteer hours and pounds of food donated during a one month period. For each hour volunteered or each pound of food collected and donated, the respective organization will receive a predetermined number of credits. The top three organizations with the most credits will be recognized and rewarded. It's a pretty simple concept, but should also be really fun. Results are due toward the end of November.

10/06/07
Stufh.org has updated to a new look and feel on the web. As the program continues to grow, the need for the ability to carry more information to participants both new and old arose. This new site layout allows us to do that. Please feel free to email the webmaster any questions/comments/concerns, or simply to point out any issues or bugs with the new layout should they appear. As the calendar year approaches 2008, STUFH will continue to help communities around the country and grow the bond with nearby colleges and universities, as the next goal to reach is one million pounds of collected food stuffs.

8/22/07
In a letter to STUFH dated August 16, 2007, Kristin Elko, the Program Coordinator for the University of Washington's recycling program reports that their summer scram move-out program raised a total of 24,496 pounds of reusable materials which was diverted from the landfill-bound waste stream. The University of Washington partnered with the Food Lifeline Food Bank in Seattle and other community organizations to collect and redistribute this vitally needed food, clothing and other products.

8/09/07
The result list for 2007 has been posted and can be found here. Some info is still coming in and being counted, but the numbers that are accounted for are great. The 2007 food drives stand with totals of:
Total States: 28
Total Poundage: 701,320
Total Food Banks: 46
Total Colleges: 65

8/03/07
Lindsay Nelson of the Harvest Hope Food Bank in Columbia, South Carolina reports that the students at the University of South Carolina at Columbia raised over 15,000 pounds of food throughout the school year which included a creative "Touchdown for Turkeys" food drive at Thanksgiving. Nearby Columbia College also donated 263 pounds at the end of the school year.

7/29/07
There is updated info in the PROGRAM link on how to establish a STUFH chapter on your campus.

7/23/07
from March 2007:
the College of Charleston Panhellenic Society teamed up with Fraternities to do a type of can-struction. I was a guest judge at the competition and we collected 6,618 pounds of food. The competition was theme based. The College of Charleston is very good to the Lowcountry Food Bank and we thank them for all of their generosity. We look forward to working with them in the upcoming year.

Regards,
Amy Kosar
Lowcountry Food Bank
akosar@lcfbank.org

7/22/07
2 news blurbs below:

Chuck Gill, assistant director for the Food Bank For Larimer County in Fort Collins Colorado writes:

In 2006 we brought in over 140,000 pounds of food from CSU's "Cans
around the Oval". In addition, we nominated the CSU department that stages the event for the top volunteer group and they were awarded the Top Volunteer group of the year By America's Second Harvest at our national convention last fall in Los Angeles. This year's event is scheduled for Thursday, October 11. Who knows, maybe they will break 150,000 pounds this year.

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Kitty Tabor of the Southwest Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank reports that in the first week in June, the students of Roanoke College organized a 'gleaning' of sweet potatoes and raised 20,000 pounds of this great source of beta caratine.

7/12/07
A new page on the site has been added for press related stories with associations to STUFH. The first one is from the New York Law Journal writing about Dan Kahn and the origins of the program. Read the full piece in the PRESS link.

Preliminary results are also coming in for the Spring 2007 food drives. At the end of the preliminary report, 701,320 pounds of foodstuffs was collected in 27 states by 46 food banks at 65 colleges. When all is done, expectations are to reach close to 800,000 pounds in 30 states.

Students of the University of Delaware came through for the Food Bank of Delaware again this year by raising 3,618 pounds of food. Charlotte McGarry reports that the University is one of their major supporters.

7/09/07
A number of emails and reports of this past season's food drives came in recently. Read below for results:

• Jennifer Duncan, Director of Students at Tulsa Community College was pleased to report that TCC students raised approximately 1,200 pounds of food for the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. Jennifer also teaches nutrition at Tulsa and her nutrition class joined in the effort to feed the hungry in their community.

• Darlene Goodman of the Bay Area Panhandle Food Bank in Alabama reports that the students at the University of South Alabama raised approximately 5,000 pounds of food during Greek Week and have been wonderful supporters of the food bank over the years.

• Reverend Larry Riley once again reports that area universities gave tremendous support to the LSS 2nd Harvest Food Bank of Northeast Florida raising a total of 5,110 pounds of foodstuffs. Reverend Riley especially praised the efforts of Professor Steve Stoll of St. John's Riverside Community College who helps the food bank each year to recycle "trash to treasure" at his college and at Jacksonville University and the University of North Florida

• Chelsea Davis, Development Associate of the Central Missouri Food Bank reports that the University of Missouri at Columbia came through with 2,310 pounds for their spring move out along with Stevens College which raised 350 pounds of foodstuffs.

• This year, the Indiana University students leaving the dorms for the
summer donated 3,647 pounds of food to the Hoosier Hills Food Bank.
This is 620 more pounds than last year!

Stephanie Solomon
Hoosier Hills Food Bank
Volunteer/Meal Share Coordinator
volunteer@hhfoodbank.org

7/03/07
Great words from Southern California and the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank:

Greetings Dan

I just wanted to take this opportunity to let you know how well the
program is working for the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank. Some of the students at USC came up with a great program they call "Dining Dollars." Through that program we have collected well over 2 tons of food! At the end of the school year, the students use their leftover dining dollars to purchase non-perishable food which comes to the Foodbank.

The students at Cal Poly Pomona (my son's Alma Mater) use their
agriculture department to harvest products grown at the University. In conjunction with the generosity of one Del Monte, we received a large donation of bananas in addition to the food drive pounds collected as a result of the hard work of the Phi Upsilon Omicron members.

Cal State Los Angeles has also been a strong supporter of the Foodbank, as well as and the Kappa Kappa Gamas.

A few words simply aren't enough to convey our gratitude for your support and partnership!

Jeanna Kindle
Product Donations Director
(323) 234-3030 x 129
jkindle@lafoodbank.org