East Carolinian

Issue date: 11/6/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Travis Bartlett

ECU's Golden Key International Honor Society is currently running a canned food drive, in an effort to provide Thanksgiving meals to needy families in Pitt County. Golden Key, the ECU Gospel Choir and Beta Beta Beta National Biological Honor Society are working together to make this year's Thanksgiving a little brighter for the less fortunate. They will give all the donations received to the Pitt County Department of Social Services, to be distributed to those in need.

Director of External Communication and affiliate of the Golden Key International Honor Society, Dianna Carroll, said this year is the first year that the canned food drive has been implemented. Carroll hopes "to collect enough to benefit Pitt County's families well into the Christmas season," although there will not be a separate food drive during the Christmas holiday.

The drive began Oct. 28 and will continue until Tuesday, Nov. 18. Canned and non-perishable foods will be collected in several locations on campus, and monetary donations are accepted as well. ECU's Gospel Choir collected food at their fall concert on Saturday, Nov. 1 in Wright Auditorium.

Students and faculty can drop off their canned collections at 214-A in Mendenhall Student Center. Tri-Beta will also have a collection table in Howell Science Building on weekdays from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Gospel Choir president D. Braxton Mercer said that the organization expects to sponsor an additional drive for the spring concert to help families during Easter.

Additional canned food drives are currently running to benefit unfortunate families during the upcoming holidays. Sonya Holley, a social worker with the Pitt County Department of Social Services, will be collecting food from ECU efforts as well as collections at Cornerstone Church.

"We need to have food on site for people walking in with an immediate need for food," said Holley. "There are people who come in that haven't eaten in days that need to be provided with food not just for the holidays, but really, any time of the year."

Holley also facilitates an Adult Foster Care Drive that targets rest home residents. Socks, T-shirts and personal hygiene necessities are always useful to people who struggle with paying for medical bills, prescription medicine and gas.

For people who are unable to bring canned goods to campus, Lowes Foods is also hosting its 14th annual Friends Feeding Friends food drive until Dec. 31. More than 617,000 pounds of food was collected by Lowes Foods last year and given to Second Harvest Food Banks. The Greenville Lowes Foods is located at 3160 S. Evans St.



This writer can be contacted at news@theeastcarolinian.com.

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