A Plea to Ursinus (or Any College) Students

What would you do if you were no longer able to afford to buy food, toiletries, and laundry detergent at Redners, Wawa, or Wegman’s?


No problem, right?


Because there is always Wismer, Zach’s, and the Convenience Store to consistently supply two or three meals a day.


But what would you do if you were not able to afford going to a grocery store...and then Wismer suffered a food shortage?


You begin to wonder where your next meal may come from, laundry detergent becomes the equivalent to “liquid gold”, and items such as toiletries and cookies become mere luxuries.


This is the situation that many local families are currently facing. Faced with unemployment and salary cuts, more and more families have been turning to food pantries in order to be able to afford to buy food and other necessities. Unfortunately, the pantries themselves are facing difficult times and are no longer able to meet the demand for food.


Due to rising fuel and food costs, the demand for items at food pantries, such as thePottstown Cluster Outreach (just 20 minutes down the road from Ursinus), is increasing, while the number of donations is decreasing. In response to this food shortage, a local newspaper, the Pottstown Mercury, has organized a food drive to benefit all of the area food pantries.


The Mercury’s goal is to collect 20,000 nutritious, non-perishable food items and 1,000 containers of laundry detergent by April 8. The need for containers of laundry detergent came to The Mercury’s attention when a worker at a food pantry in Boyertown shared the story of a young girl who was more excited that her family was getting laundry detergent, which they could use to make their clothes “smell nice”, than she was about getting some cookies.


Ursinus College has pledged to help The Mercury reach their goal, by trying to collect 100 food items to contribute to the overall goal of 20,000 items.


Almost every student on campus has a small collection of food in their dorms rooms, typically consisting of Ramen noodles, macaroni and cheese, soup, cereal, etc. If every student on campus could donate just ONE of their non-perishable food items, it could have a tremendous impact on Ursinus College’s local community and in the fight against Hunger.


Donations can be dropped off in the UCARE office from now until April 6.


For further information about the food drive and its progress, go here.