HPU Family Donates Food to United Way for Stamp Out Hunger Campaign
High Point University students donated hundreds of pounds of food at the end of the spring semester to support the National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive. Pictured from left with food donations are Darrius Marshall of NALC with Gart Evans, a United Way staff member; Alyvia Williams, HPU assistant director of Residence Life; Timothy Robinson, assistant director of Fraternity and Sorority Life; Alston DeVegas, assistant director of Residence Life; Breanna Williams-Milne, communications director; Madison Simmons, director of Fraternity and Sorority Life; Joe Barnes, United Way vice president of resource development; Nicole Hundt, senior director of Housing and Residence Life; Latoya Bullock, vice president of community impact for the United Way; and Crystal Harvey, HPU’s director of the Office of Residence Life.
HIGH POINT, N.C., May 9, 2024 – High Point University students donated hundreds of pounds of food at the end of the spring semester to support the National Association of Letter Carriers’ annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive. The HPU offices of Student Life and Residence Life recently collected the items and helped load a postal truck with 1,082 pounds of nonperishable food in partnership with the United Way of Greater High Point and United Way staff members.
“It’s important for us to still be able to give back to those in need, and students want to give back,” said Crystal Harvey, HPU’s director of the Office of Residence Life. “We know that 80% of our students are from out of state, and they can’t take a lot of this stuff on planes or put it in storage. They don’t want to be wasteful, so they donate. This partnership with United Way is important, especially with food insecurities in the community and how high grocery prices are now.”
The Residence Life initiative, supported by the Office of Student Life, is a longstanding tradition for the HPU family to collect dozens of boxes filled with food just before the end of the spring semester to support the United Way of Greater High Point’s efforts to stock local food pantry shelves throughout the summer.
“This year the postal food drive is one that’s going to be very important to our agencies,” said Latoya Bullock, vice president of community impact for the United Way of Greater High Point. “The need is up. We have some pantries that have more than doubled; some went from serving 100 monthly to 400. Donations are down. Our local food bank does not have as much to share. We have an agency that received more than 20,000 pounds of food each month and now they’re down to 7,000. Summer is going to be particularly important because children will be out of school and families are going to need more help and assistance.”
The food drive will help more than 10 local food pantries in the surrounding community. Those include A Shared Blessing at First United Methodist Church, Caring Services, Community Outreach of Archdale and Trinity (COAT), Food Pantry of the Triad, Helping Hands Ministry, Macedonia Family Resource Center, New Beginnings Full Gospel Ministries, The Salvation Army of High Point, Ward Street Community Resources and West End Ministries. Nonfood items also are collected for West End Ministries.
The Stamp Out Hunger Drive, launched in 1993, has grown into the nation’s largest one-day food drive, according to the association. In the 31 years since it began, the food drive has collected about 1.9 billion pounds of food for people in need across the country.