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Giving Has Come "Full Circle": Actioning Emergency Food Assistance at U of A
Posted by on March 15, 2012 at 12:45 PM EDT
“Never doubt that a small group of dedicated citizens can change the world, in fact it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead. Two years ago, a group of students (the Volunteer Action Center) at the University of Arkansas started talking about the issue of food insecurity and how it affected students on the UA campus. One year ago, after months of planning, Full Circle Campus Food Pantry celebrated its grand opening. And now, being recognized by the White House’s Campus Champions of Change initiative is truly a testament that a small group of dedicated people really can make an impact.
Full Circle is an emergency food assistance program at the University of Arkansas that was established to address the needs of students and staff facing food insecurity while providing on campus service opportunities for students. Each request for assistance is met with a three day supply of food.
Full Circle is completely student run. Students on the Volunteer Action Center board serve as the Full Circle Chair (that’s me), Donations Manager, Food Drive Sponsor, Volunteer Coordinator, and Applications Coordinator to really organize how the pantry runs. It takes more than just the students on the Board to run the pantry though. We have 25 students who serve as Full Circle Volunteers; these students commit two hours each week to filling requests for food and stocking donations. And that doesn’t include our Extra Hands, 75 volunteers, students and staff, who help us out with huge food drives, big donations, and by shopping for certain staples that we don’t usually get through food drives (like canned meats, cereal, and peanut butter).
Striking Out Homelessness One Student At a Time
Posted by on March 15, 2012 at 12:29 PM EDT
In the Fall of 2009, “Swipes for the Homeless” was established as an official university student organization at UCLA in order to help alleviate the susceptivity of the neighboring homeless community, specifically the growing student homelessness population. Having seen on-campus students collect hot meals for the needy in past years, Thach Nguyen and Bryan Pezeshki set up a partnership between the multiple campus departments to fully institutionalize the program that would allow the impact and influence of this idea to grow to its full potential.
On-campus residents with meal plans that allow them to roll over unused meals from week to week, tend to accrue many unused meals, or “swipes”, by the end of each academic quarter. At the end of the quarter, these students can donate their unused meal swipes, which would otherwise go to waste, to “Swipes for the Homeless.” Our organization then takes the meals to homeless shelters, homeless living on the streets, and homeless and hungry students on campus. In addition, many other sub-projects target wasted food in the residential dining halls, fast-food eateries on campus, and community businesses in order to salvage that food for those less fortunate on a daily basis. The organization has collected over 20,000 meals to date, with a record of 7,421 meals this past university quarter.
Abandoning Mediocrity and Seizing Opportunity
Posted by on March 15, 2012 at 12:26 PM EDT
I’m honored to have Moneythink recognized as one of the five Champions of Change in the White House Campus Challenge. It’s surreal: three years ago, when Moneythink was just an idea, we dreamed of taking our passion—financial education through peer mentorship—to a national stage. We didn’t realize just how much more relevant our mission would become in those short three years.
Financial illiteracy, economic immobility, and educational inequality are problems that continue to worsen in America’s urban centers as the global financial crisis unravels further. But as with any challenge, the outcome is in the response: we as individuals can choose to join the doomsayers, passive bystanders, and despondent fatalists in the comfort of collective complaining, or we can choose to abandon mediocrity, see the silver lining, and act upon the opportunity to build a better future.
Until my mid-teens, I drifted through life passive, purposeless, and unhappy. My parents had worked hard to seize opportunities in their lives, saving enough money to provide me with extracurricular opportunities and eventually hire me a tutor. This tutor, a college student from Ghana and the first of many mentors who would enter my life, inspired and worked with me to raise my grades, set goals, and pursue higher education. Over the course of the following two years, mentors and friends (or ‘friendtors’ as we like to call each other) helped me transform my life from a mediocre and aimless teenage existence into an overnight success story: I graduated in the top 5% of my class (after thinking I’d never get an ‘A’), launched climate change advocacy groups at 30+ high schools in California (after never starting an organization before in my life), and was admitted to the University of Chicago on a full-tuition merit scholarship (after thinking I’d never go to college).
Feeding the Body and Mind
Posted by on March 13, 2012 at 8:37 AM EDTIt wasn’t long ago that I found myself as an undergraduate at Arizona State University studying hard and taking advantage of an opportunity no other member of my family ever had. I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for my college education and the supportive ASU community. Unfortunately college is anything but cheap and as such, millions of Americans continue to struggle to afford a college education. While the Obama administration has strengthened programs like Income Based Repayment and increased funding for Pell Grants in order to help make college more affordable, there are creative young women that are also finding ways to send students to school and give back to the community.
Shayla Price. (Photo Courtesy of HelloGiggles)
This week’s “Women Working to Do Good” highlights Shayla Price, known by many as the “Scholarship Queen” after she helped more than 5,000 students apply for college scholarships. Not only that, her passion for service extended from education to poverty and in her free time, Shayla advocates to end hunger in the United States. The author writes,
U.S. Department of State Hosts First Press Briefing in Spanish
Posted by on March 9, 2012 at 6:05 PM EDTOn Thursday, March 8th, 2012, the U.S. Department of State hostedthe first-ever Spanish-language press briefing on current U.S. foreign policy issues. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Mike Hammer took questions in Spanish from the podium in the Department’s press briefing room.
Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Mike Hammer
You can watch the briefing by clicking HERE. To read the transcript, CLICK HERE.
Luis Miranda is Director of Hispanic Media for the White House
Learn more about Additional IssuesVice President Biden interviews with Telemundo, Univisión, and CNN en Español
Posted by on March 9, 2012 at 12:05 PM EDTVice President Biden interviewed with Telemundo, Univisión and CNN en Español this week after returning from a visit to Mexico and Honduras as part of the administration’s sustained, high-level engagement with the Americas. The Vice President’s visit comes in advance of the President’s participation in the Summit of the Americas this April in Colombia, which will focus on leveraging Hemispheric connections and partnerships to improve the lives of people throughout the region.
In addition to discussing his visit, the Vice President talked about the DREAM Act, immigration reform, and what it meant to him to visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe – one of the most visited Roman Catholic sites in the world and the most holy Roman Catholic site in Mexico.
Both Telemundo and Univision will air larger portions of the interview on their Sunday shows Enfoque and Al Punto so tune in, but here are clips of the interviews they have already run.
Take a look at the Vice President’s comments to Jose Diaz Balart from Telmundo: On the DREAM Act| On his visit to the Basilica
To see the Vice President’s interview with CNN en Español: Click Here
For an excerpt of the Vice President’s comments to Maria Elena Salinas from Univisión: Click Here
To read more about the Vice President’s trip to Mexico and Honduras Click Here, and for a blog post on his visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe Click Here. See a slideshow of the Vice President's triphere.
And don’t forget to tune in on Sunday!
Luis Miranda is White House Director of Hispanic Media
Ambassador Susan Rice's Remarks at the AIPAC Synagogue Initiative Lunch
Posted by on March 8, 2012 at 5:48 PM EDTOn Monday, March 5th, Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice addressed the Synagogue Initiative lunch at the AIPAC Policy Conference. There, she reiterated the administration's support for Israel and shared the story of her personal connection with Israel. Following her speech, over 400 rabbis sang her favorite psalm, Hinei ma’tov uma-nayim, shevet achim gam yachad - "behold how good and how pleasing if people could sit together in unity."
Ambassador Rice's remarks are below:
Learn more about Foreign PolicyTEAM: Broadcasting Success
Posted by on March 8, 2012 at 12:33 PM EDT“Tales of Excellence, Achievement and Mentorship” or “TEAM” is a weekly series with StudentMentor.org, an organization that helps college students find and collaborate with mentors to successfully graduate from college and embark on their desired careers.
The series features students from diverse backgrounds and from across the country using mentorships to advance their career and education goals. In their own words, they explain how mentors helped them transform into the leaders of tomorrow.
Learn more about Service
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