David Saveanu
Reporter
On April 14, Illini Fighting Hunger, a registered student organization at UIUC, will organize a Day of Service at Memorial Stadium.
“Basically, it is just a rice and bean repack, so all of the rice and beans are brought over to memorial stadium where the repack is taking place,” said Gabi Fisher, Parkland’s AmeriCorps VISTA who helps inform Parkland students about volunteer opportunities.
Food repacking events, between the University of Illinois and Parkland, offer students and community members volunteering opportunities. The goal is to repack 151,000 meals, according to the Illini Fighting Hunger website.
“Volunteers are set up in a sort of assembly line where they’ll pour the rice and beans into these little bags that then get put into boxes,” Fisher said.
The Day of Service at UIUC is a yearly event, coming up on its sixth year.
According to the website, they are estimating around 1,300 volunteers. The event is open to the community and provides volunteers with a multitude of options for when to volunteer, how long to volunteer, and the specific jobs to work.
Shifts run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in 90-minute increments with the ability to volunteer multiple shifts or all day.
“The Illini Fighting Hunger is the organization that spearheads it, but they work with a lot of different organizations,” Fisher said.
Different organizations will often plan events associated with the UIUC’s Day of Service. This year, Parkland will have its own repacking day as well.
Joshua Clark, Parkland’s student life activities manager, is organizing a repacking day on April 11.
Clark said that the plan is to repack 1,750 pounds of food.
Parkland will be working with students and different organizations to repack rice specifically for the Wesley Food Pantry at Parkland.
“That’s going to just go to Wesley food pantry on campus,” Clark said.
“The one at Memorial Stadium, it goes to the Eastern Illinois foodbank and they spread it throughout Champaign and Champaign County,” Clark said.
The goal is that the repack day “becomes a yearly thing supported by the student organizations,” Clark said.
Parkland’s learning service website provides students with information about the Day of Service as well as different volunteering opportunities around campus.
“Parkland students, through the my.parkland page, have access to the service learning website and that’s where I post a lot of different opportunities that pop up on campus or off campus,” Fisher said.
“Sometimes the organizations we work with will contact me and I can put that up on the [service learning] website as well,” Fisher said.
The amount of opportunities available fluctuates depending on the events going on in the community. However, places like the Wesley Food Pantry on campus are always looking for volunteers.
“We try to funnel anyone who is interested in volunteering here at Parkland over to [the Wesley Food Pantry],” Fisher said.
The Wesley Food Pantry at Parkland is located in the M-wing in room M138.
“It’s right there. It’s convenient,” Fisher said.
The pantry is not only open to volunteers, but it also supports students and community members who need extra resources. The food pantry runs every Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and every first and third Saturday of the month, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
“If students are interested in having certain things occur on campus, I’d be interested in having them let me know,” Fisher said.
Contact Gabi Fisher at GFisher@parkland.edu if you have ideas for different volunteering events.
For future volunteer and service learning opportunities other than the Day of Service event, log onto my.parkland.edu, click on the Student Services tab, followed by the Academics tab, then Service Learning.
To sign up for the Day of Service go to dayofservice.cuvolunteer.org/register.
