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October 28, 2010

Senate strategizes to improve food drives

The University Senate community relations committee (CRC) last week strategized about food collections with a staff member of the nonprofit organization that runs the Oakland Food Pantry.

Genevieve Barbee of Community Human Services (CHS), which helps run the year-old food pantry at 3201 Craft Place, told the committee that awareness of the food pantry is increasing, as evidenced by the number of people it now serves. “Just in two days in October, we distributed food to 50 heads of households, about double what we normally see,” she said.

She said the pantry is focusing on procuring donated food with higher nutritional value. “We’re focusing on helping people with special dietary needs, like those with diabetes or heart disease who need low-salt products. So, we’re not just getting people food, but getting them the nutrition they need.”

Barbee said that while the food pantry never turns down a donated item, donors sometimes give food because they don’t want it themselves, rather than because of high nutritional content. “It’s a matter of informed giving. A lot of people don’t know that we need low-salt products, or that we need women’s hygiene products,” she noted. (For information about the Oakland Food Pantry, call 412/246-1648.)

CRC member Steve Zupcic, who leads Pitt’s annual spring food drive benefiting the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and its satellite area pantries, including the Oakland pantry, said Pitt’s efforts also should focus on high nutrition. “One person’s idea of what’s healthy might vary from the next person’s,” he noted, adding that’s why the virtual food drives, where people select items online to be purchased with their donations, have become more important than “physical” food drives, because they can meet targeted needs. “With the virtual food drive, with the leveraging power the food bank has, for every dollar you donate, you’re purchasing about $8 worth of food, and it’s needed food,” Zupcic said.

CRC co-chair Denise Chisholm said, “That’s a powerful message. It might lead people to donate money instead of going out to Giant Eagle, buying food and donating that.” She added that a good strategy for those organizing “physical” food drives would be asking for specific products or a range of products, that is, mimicking certain clothing drives such as those that ask for women’s professional clothing.

Zupcic also reported on Pitt’s ongoing efforts to support the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. To avoid a conflict with Thanksgiving, November’s “Fourth Thursday,” program has been rescheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 23, Zupcic said.

Fourth Thursdays is the Pitt-sponsored community volunteer effort to repackage and distribute food at the community food bank’s warehouse in Duquesne on the fourth Thursday evening of each month. (For more information on Fourth Thursdays or other volunteer projects, contact  Zupcic at 412/624-7709 or stz@pitt.edu. Online sign up also is available at www.commrel.pitt.edu/CRO-volunteerpoolform.html.)

Gwen Watkins, the Staff Association Council liaison to CRC, reported that SAC is planning a pre-Thanksgiving food collection. One of the beneficiaries will be the Oakland Food Pantry, Watkins said. To drum up support for the food drive, SAC plans to invite a representative from the Oakland Food Pantry to its Nov. 10 meeting, she added. “I think it’s better when people give to get to hear from the people they’re giving to and see how committed those people are. It brings the message home more clearly.”

Also at its Oct. 19 meeting, CRC discussed two future projects.

CRC co-chair Martha Terry reported on plans to host the fall 2011 Senate plenary session, tentatively titled “Community-Engaged Service and Practice.”

“What we want to do is feature some of the community-based service projects that are being done at Pitt. That’s means everything from telling communities what you’re going to do, to listening to what communities would like us to do, to engaging them in the whole process and everything in between,” Terry said.

She also asked committee members to keep track of the organizations and agencies where they volunteer.

“What we want to do at the end of the year for an annual report is compile a list, an overall look, at the places where we on the committee do service. That’s what we’re all about, after all,” Terry said.

In other CRC business:

• Responding to a written complaint, CRC members expressed support of Pitt’s homecoming festivities, including the laser show and fireworks event, which will be held at 9 p.m. Oct. 29.

John Wilds, assistant vice chancellor for community relations and a chancellor’s liaison to CRC, said, “There’s a neighbor down on Boundary Street who is complaining continuously about the ‘bombs’ that are going to be exploding, which he says are going to adversely impact his 90-plus-year-old parents. We’ve had fireworks in connection with homecoming for about 20 years. We view fireworks as an asset for the community.”

Wilds added that the fireworks event, which is expected to last about 25 minutes, meets the safety requirements of the city’s Department of Public Safety, as well as all fire department regulations.

CRC members noted that the homecoming events are supported by local community organizations, such as the Oakland Community Council, Oakland Planning and Development Corp. and the Oakland Business Improvement District. Members were pleased that the University will notify the neighbors adjacent to the University’s campus about the homecoming activities, including details on the fireworks event.

• Wilds reported that a dedication ceremony, as yet unscheduled, is being planned for the new athletics fields under construction at Robinson Court, near Trees Hall.

The Petersen Sports Complex, named for John M. and Gertrude E. Petersen, as is the Petersen Events Center, is nearing completion, Wilds said. The complex will provide state-of-the-art homes for the Panthers baseball, softball and men’s and women’s soccer teams.

Wilds also reported that construction is expected to begin on the Salk Hall addition Nov. 1. (See July 22 University Times.)

• As part of its community outreach effort, the committee toured the new Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, located in Lawrenceville.

• CRC’s next meeting is set for noon on Nov. 16 in 272 Hillman Library.

—Peter Hart

Filed under: Feature,Volume 43 Issue 5

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