Winter food drive success

With more than 3,500 pounds of food donated from UVU students, the UVU Service Council considers its winter food drive a success.

“We completely underestimated the generosity of UVU students,” said Rich Doxey of the UVU Service Council. “Even though the economy has struggled, students were still willing to give.”

The UVU Service Council organized the food drive in partnership with Community Action Services.

Several tactics were used to collect so much food. Volunteers went door-to-door around local student housing and received many donations. Additionally, a dating auction was held where students were auctioned off for cans of food.

All the food went to Community Action Services that runs the food bank for Provo and Orem.

“We didn’t really understand the need for food in our community until we visited the offices of Community Action Services,” Doxey said. “There are many families that are struggling right now.”

There was a 40 percent increase in food bank requests at one point in the past few months. UVU’s donations helped the local food banks that were struggling during the holiday season.

Doxey said the UVU Service Council is very thankful to those who volunteered and donated.