Press Room
April Volunteer Spotlight: Transylvania University
While most of Lexington’s college community fled the city for Spring Break and the promise of parties or catching up on sleep, at least one group of students opted for something a little different last month. Transylvania University’s Alternative Spring Break program engages students in a week of community service around the country – this year, in Washington, D.C. But before leaving, ASB spent a day volunteering at sites across Lexington and we were lucky to be one of their choices.
ASB’s service is just the latest example of Transy’s support of God’s Pantry Food Bank. Just this semester, we’ve welcomed the sisters from Alpha Omicron Pi and the brothers from Delta Sigma Phi and Pi Kappa Alpha. And on April 6th, the school’s vibrant Greek community will come together for Campus Sing, an annual food drive that has brought in over 100,000 pounds of food since its inception in 2005.
We applaud Transylvania and its commitment to service and look forward to continuing this partnership! A few of the ASB students reminded us why we are so grateful for the school’s support:
Cody Alton, a sophomore from Corbin, KY, explains why ASB came out to volunteer:
“One of the main reasons was because of your mission statement and that how you work is in line with the mission of the [Alternative Spring Break] trip. We’re working with hunger and homelessness issues, and the lack of food directly correlates with homelessness and poverty. We tried to find an organization along those lines and had a lot of great options like the Hope Center and Lexington Rescue Mission, but God’s Pantry covers such a large area that we felt our time would help more people by volunteering here.”
Bethany Davenport, a first-year from Elizabethtown, KY, shares her favorite part about volunteering:
“I really liked how our group worked together as a team. At the end of our shift, we formed an assembly line to finish sorting the last few crates of food and it made things so much easier. We were able to get through a lot more food and in a shorter amount of time than if we had worked individually.”
Jake Hawkins, a first-year from Princeton, KY, told us what he learned about GPFB that he didn’t know before:
“I saw the scope of items that people donate – like baby food and non-food personal products – and just the magnitude of food you distribute. This isn’t a pantry; it’s a massive warehouse. It made me realize that even though I pledged to lose fifty pounds for the Pound for Pound Challenge [through NBC’s “The Biggest Loser”], an equivalent donation of food is so small in comparison to how much food you all need. That amount would feed a family of four for only three days.”
And the group was surprised by some of the more interesting items they came across while sorting food, including canned cactus, individual vegetable cups (similar to fruit cups), shelf-stable cheese, and hundreds of pounds of cereal!