Service organizations join together to raise homelessness awareness

By Shannon Curley
Collegian Staff
November 1, 2006

La Salle’s student community service groups are collaborating to plan campus events that will take place during National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week (H&H Week) from Nov. 12-18.

Kaitlyn Muller, a senior coordinating the event, says that the goal of H&H Week is to “bring awareness to the problem in our area, in the nation and in the world.”

Under the umbrella service group, Fellowship of Community and University Services (F.O.C.U.S.), the Social Justice Committee, AIDS Outreach and Homeless Outreach are just a few of the groups set to organize events throughout the week.

At La Salle’s weekly mass Nov. 12, intentions will be read for those affected by poverty as well as for the students involved with H&H Week. This liturgy will officially kick off the week. The intentions will continue to be read throughout the week at daily mass.

On Nov. 13, the week really gets started. H&H Week representatives will walk around Main Campus during universal free period with handouts featuring information and statistics about local hunger and homelessness. At 6 p.m., there will be a lasagna dinner and a movie in the St. Basil’s main lounge. A game called Global Hunger Grab Bag is also planned.

These activities are designed to let students come out and meet the people in these organizations in a relaxed environment.

“A lot of times people are interested in volunteering, but they don’t really know what to expect,” Muller said.

The Social Justice Committee is running the Hunger Banquet Nov. 14 at 4:45 p.m. in the Union Ballroom. The banquet is unique because not everyone will be served the same food. Attendants will be eating in the same room, but some people will be served a sumptuous dinner, while others will get next to nothing.

“There will be essentially a class breakdown inside of the Ballroom,” said Muller. “It really evokes emotions because you can smell the food, but you know you can’t have any of it.”

On Wednesday, in lounges all over campus, students will be able to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that will be donated to the St. Francis Inn Soup Kitchen. La Salle students go once a week to St. Francis to help prepare and serve the food to the homeless.

Two speakers from the Bethesda Project, a homless outreach group, will be addressing the La Salle community during Thursday’s universal free period. One is a priest who has been working with the homeless in Philadelphia for years. The other speaker is a man who will share his first-hand knowledge of what it means to live on the streets.

The week will culminate in a celebration on Friday. Throughout the week, students will be able to donate canned goods and men’s socks and underwear in paper bags that will be decorated and left around campus at Treetops, the B&G, the chapel, College Hall, the Union and the North Dorms mailroom. Size large socks and underwear are preferable, because larger sizes allow for more layering and more warmth.

Freshman Rebecca Petner said of H&H Week, “I think it’s really awesome that the La Salle community is reaching out to the homeless. It’s great to see students who can tend to be self-absorbed doing something for others.”

curleys1@lasalle.edu