Vehicles stopped in front of the MU Student Center to unload cans upon cans of food for Greek Week’s Grouping Donation and Can and Food Drive from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 16.
This year, the food drive collected more than 23, 502 cans, which senior Christyl Thurman said was more than they expected. The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri, which benefits from the drive, even had to deliver extra pallets in order to hold all of the donations.
“We gave back,” Thurman aid. “There were so many Greek students helping in the hot sun and they came here and didn’t complain, counted cans, put it together and were really cooperative. So, I think that if anything, we gave back.”
Casey Gergen, who is on the Greek Week Service Steering Committee, was one of the drive’s volunteers. She helped direct and facilitate the event.
“My role was setting up the food drive, making sure everything ran smoothly, counting the cans for all of the chapters and assigning those points for their cans,” Gergen said.
Thurman is also on the Service Steering Committee for Greek Week. She took one break the whole day to go to class, but she worked the rest of the time at the drive to make sure everything ran efficiently.
“The only challenge was this morning when we first got here,” Thurman said. “In the beginning we had kind of a terrible system so it wasn’t really working out, but as the day went on we got to figure out what worked best.”
Greek Week has been giving the donations to the Food Bank for a long time, Gergen said.
“They chose it a long time ago, but it makes a lot of sense because the Food Bank of Central Missouri supplies all of the pantries in the surrounding counties,” she said. “So when you donate to them they can spread it all over areas that need it.”
Gergen said the food drive is important, because a huge part of Greek Week is service and “hunger is a real issue and food insecurity is an issue.”
“We do sports, fling and all of that during Greek Week, but there’s a huge service component and that makes it a little different from Homecoming and other things that we do,” she said. “It’s great because we are giving back not just to the campus community, but the Columbia community.”
Many of the chapter pairings brought in more than 3,000 cans of food individually, and there were many additional volunteers throughout the day who volunteered their time.
“We had a lot of Greek members, not even steering committee members, come and help out, and it’s really tiring throwing cans into boxes,” Gergen said. “So I’m really proud of all of the people that brought in a ton of cans and cared enough to do that, spent time unloading cars and also the volunteers that did the heavy lifting.”
Each of the pairings were assigned to turn in their cans during a specific time. There were 15 groupings of Greek chapters, so three groupings came per shift in order to spread out the crowds.
Freshman Destiny Frey is a Greek Week Service Liaison for her house, Delta Delta Delta sorority, which is paired with Delta Sigma Phi. She and other members came during the afternoon to turn in cans, and Frey said she was grateful for the guys who helped.
“Without the guys, honestly, I don’t think I could have done it,” Frey said. “We had three tubs full and it was heavy for them, so I can’t imagine us girls trying to do it.”
Their pairing turned in various types of canned food, including corn, peas and green beans, and also tried to give a little more for additional points.
“If you brought in 30 peanut butter cans between 16 and 20 ounces, your group pairing could actually get ten extra points added on,” Frey said. “We haven’t counted yet, but I’m pretty sure we reached it.”
She said her own grouping did not have a goal in mind, but she was proud of her group and grateful to be a part of something so significant.
“I think it’s great that the Greek community gets to make such an impact in Columbia and anywhere else these cans are going to go, so I’m excited to be helping everyone,” Frey said.
The Service Steering Committee was also pleased with the Greek community’s efforts and acts of service that day.
“I think Greeks have a terrible stigma that comes along with them, that they don’t really volunteer or give back, but I think part of being a Greek student is giving back to philanthropies,” Thurman said. “We really try to strive for that during Greek Week and try to get rid of that negative stigma.”