Donations from the Panhellenic Council benefited Allied Churches of Alamance County and were distributed with help from Campus Kitchen at Elon University.
By Sarah Mulnick ’17
Sororities involved in Elon University’s Panhellenic Council collected more than a ton of canned food to benefit Allied Churches of Alamance County as part of recent Greek Week campus festivities.
Staff at Allied Churches, the largest shelter and lunchtime feeding program in the university’s home county, had plans in early April to drive to a food bank in Winston-Salem, N.C., to replenish its low inventory.
The Greek Week food drive was enough to keep that from happening. Elon’s sororities brought in 2,344 pounds of canned food for the nonprofit organization.
“It kept us from having to go drive,” said Shannon Smith, food services coordinator for Allied Churches. “We’re actually still using today the food that was brought. We needed that food and are so appreciative.”
The drive ran for three days and was open to any interested Greek organization. This year the Greek Week committee, which Elon juniors Grace Cahill and Rachel Kagan co-chaired, made the canned food drive a priority.
The organizations received help as well from Campus Kitchen at Elon University. The campus affiliate of the national Campus Kitchen Project collects unused and unserved food from community partners, including ARAMARK Dining Services, for distribution to those in need.
“Each sorority had a collection bin in their house that was taken to Campus Kitchen at the end of the drive,” said Cahill, president of the Panhellenic Council. “We wanted to make it a success.”
Campus Kitchen has more opportunities planned to give food and help to Allied Churches in the coming weeks, including an event on Staff Appreciation Day that program coordinator Steve Caldwell hopes will generate a similar response.
“This is the first drive of this magnitude we’ve had,” Caldwell said. “Allied Churches was thrilled.”
Allied Churches receives donations from Elon University’s Campus Kitchen about once a week, Smith said. The donations are brought to the Holly Hill Mall, where Allied Churches takes over.