Illinois Alpha Tau Omega Hosts Food Drive, Packages 100,000 Meals For Children In Need

Kramer Smash8 years ago

Last year, a University of Illinois Alpha Tau Omega alumni suggested something huge to fall in line with the chapters dedication to charity. So they came up with the idea for a food drive for children in need. A year of dedicated fundraising and an afternoon of hard work later, the brothers of ATO pulled together over $25,000 to make the food drive possible and, with the aid of nearly a dozen other fraternities and sororities and more than 500 volunteers, pulled together 100,000 boxed meals for hungry children through “Feed My Children MobilePack.”

From the Daily Illini:

The fraternity volunteers at the Help Center, a food pantry in Urbana, twice a week. They’ve been doing it for a few semesters. They also have a blood drive coming up in November that will be hosted with the Illinites, Gaughan said, and a Dad’s Weekend Casino Night, which is how they fundraised for this packing event.

‘Volunteering is mandatory for us,’ Quinn Gaughan, Alpha Tau Omega external philanthropy chair said.

‘It does take a significant amount of money, so being able to commit to the fundraising, and (packing) 100,000 meals, which is enough food to feed 298 kids a meal a day for an entire year, is a huge impact that Alpha Tau and all of the other volunteers who have come out today are making in a child’s life,’ Nikki Larson, Feed My Children MobilePack’s event supervisor said.

Beyond being philanthropic just for the sake of saying your chapter gives back, I appreciate guys like Illinois’ ATO that identify a cause that resonates with them and stick with it. Not only did these fellas raise a ton of money to facilitate this noble cause, they also volunteer at food pantries on the regular. The more you stick with a particular cause, the more momentum you gain towards making a difference. People begin to identify your organization with a certain cause and your impact grows exponentially. Take Sigma Chi’s Derby Days, or Penn State’s Thon for instance: People come to expect — even look forward — to their philanthropies and they’re able to eclipse their previous success, year after year.

100,000 meals a hell of a lot of food. Good work, guys and we look forward to seeing more of this selfless hard work..

[via Daily Illini]

Image via University of Illinois Alpha Tau Omega