On April 1, the Elizabethtown College Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE) hosted an event called Day of Service in the Thompson Gymnasium. Students and faculty spent the day volunteering to conduct service work to help communities throughout the nation.
The CCCE created Day of Service last Spring. The event aims to promote community with people within the College and outside communities. Students and faculty could sign up digitally for four time slots that started from 8 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. Each session contained 80 people and they lasted for 75 minutes.
“Day of Service focuses on getting students, faculty, staff and alumni connected to serving the community. It’s a great way to work beside a familiar friend or meet new ones,” CCCE Director Javita Thompson said.
The CCCE also worked with a company called Unto, a humanitarian ministry that’s part of a larger ministry called Cru. Their goal is to help other communities that are suffering.
“At Unto, we help you express the kindness of Jesus to people living in the toughest places on earth by relieving suffering, restoring dignity and revealing hope,” Unto stated on their website.
Unto helped the College through their Food and Agriculture program. It allows them to get students to help feed hungry people through what they call a “PACKHOPE Experience.”
“By hosting a PACKHOPE Experience, student volunteers help people in the toughest places on Earth who do not have enough food to eat. You will help relieve their suffering, restore their dignity and reveal hope,” Unto stated on their Campus Partnerships webpage.
This year, Day of Service and Unto focused on packing foods to provide a monthly supply for refugee families. Volunteers packed bags of rice and lentils that Unto provided and loaded them onto trucks.
“They purchased the rice and lentils in bulk for packaging and distribution,” Thompson said.
Volunteers were stationed in three groups and at tables throughout the right half of the gym to prevent confusion. One station had volunteers dispensing the rice and lentils through funnels into bags and sealing them. Then they placed them in Tupperware bins for the second table behind them, allowing them to place them in boxes.
People at the second table made sure the bags were sealed and packed them in a pattern. Six bags of rice went in the box, followed by another six bags. Afterward, six bags of lentils went into the box. Then they repeated the process and gave the boxes to the last table. They taped the boxes and placed them in a cart.
The CCCE put effort into organizing the event. Thompson stated that the process was quick, but starting it took a while. “A team of eight Etown students and staff and the soccer team assisted Unto staff with setup on Thursday night from 6:30 to 9:00 [p.m.],” she said.
Last year, the CCCE had 315 participants; 96 helped pack over 40,000 meals, and the other 219 students conducted other service projects. This year, they hoped to pack 46,000 meals due to the number of participants, which was 256. They planned this by aiming to pack 80 boxes of meals per session.
The goal could go higher, but the CCCE had to consider its resources.
“It truly depends on sponsorship. The event costs money. We have to purchase the meals to be packed,” Thompson said.
Once each session ended, volunteers drank water and ate snacks that the CCCE provided. Thompson also encouraged volunteers to write their reason for participating on a markerboard and hoped they would participate next time.
“I would love to see more alum[ni] and community members participate in the event,” Thompson said.
For more information about Unto and how to get involved, visit unto.com/about/who-is-unto/ and unto.com/get-involved/campus-partnerships/.
