University Times

Pitt’s 2003 Partnership for Food Drive will be held throughout April to benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Nonperishable food and household items will be accepted at designated campus collection sites.

The most needed food items include baby formula and food, chunky soups, peanut butter, packaged meals, tuna, meats and cereals. Items such as paper products, soaps and cleaners also are needed. Bulk commodities also can be donated.

The collected items are distributed through a network of local food pantries. The project has no overhead costs since all publicity, printing, packing boxes, bags and staffing personnel are donated.

Each April in cities across the United States, food drives are coordinated through a variety of nonprofits and United Ways. Pitt’s Volunteer Pool and Student Volunteer Outreach sponsor the campus-wide effort in collaboration with the United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

“Unique among Pittsburgh area employers, the Pitt Partnership for Food is more than just another food drive,” said Steve Zupcic, of Pitt’s Office of Community and Governmental Relations and Partnership for Food coordinator. The partnership includes student, staff and faculty voluntary service throughout the year at the Food Bank’s main warehouse and at the Healthy Harvest Farm in McDonald, Pa., he said.

Zupcic added: “With a severely sagging economy and a particularly high rate of unemployment, the need for donated food is greater than ever. The $4 million worth of food collected last year, provided one month’s allotment of food for those in need.”

For more information or to request a food pick-up for bulk items, call 412/624-7709.

Pitt collection sites include:

• William Pitt Union Fifth Avenue lobby information desk;

• Circulation desks of Hillman and all other Pitt libraries;

• Office of Communications — Posvar Hall main floor;

• Law School lobby and Barco Law Library;

• Scaife Hall second- and fourth-floor lobbies;

• Biomedical Science Tower entrance lobby;

• Cathedral of Learning ground-floor elevator lobby;

• Graduate School of Public Health first-floor lobby;

• Craig Hall lobby;

• Biotech Center lobby;

• School of Information Sciences fifth-floor lobby;

• Towers lobby;

• Alumni Hall lobby.