UW-Madison students collaborate to help local families

University of Wisconsin–Madison students are participating in a handful of charitable activities to help families in need this winter.

On Friday, Dec. 5, Visitor & Information Programs (VIP) of UW–Madison will join Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin to raise nonperishable food items for families in need.

Students can donate food to the VIP drive between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. at the Red Gym, 716 Langdon St., and will receive complimentary hot chocolate. For every 1.25 pounds of food donated, Second Harvest will prepare one meal to assist the 110,000 people at risk of hunger in southern Wisconsin.

In addition, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, in conjunction with the UW Athletic Department, will hold a toy drive before the men’s hockey game at the Kohl Center on Friday, Dec. 5.

Student-athletes will be there to collect new, unwrapped toys from fans, which will then be donated to Toys for Tots for distribution in the greater Madison area.

Other groups have been working in the past months to help stock local pantries and centers with food for the holiday season.

The School of Library and Information Studies held a food drive from Nov. 12-24, raising 20-25 pounds of food to be donated to Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin. The UW–Madison graduate student heading the drive, Peter Wehrle, said the goal was to address and raise awareness of the hunger more than meeting a specific amount of food.

“We are trying to highlight the small ways we can each give back and support our community this winter,” Wehrle says.

Also, this fall, more than 70 campus organizations participated in the Red and White Hunger Fight, which began with Homecoming and lasted until Nov. 10. Efforts raised four tons of food and more than $2,000, which was all given to the Community Action Coalition of South-Central Wisconsin. The money went to purchase Thanksgiving meal baskets that were picked up by families in the Madison area on Nov. 26.

“It was a great year to get things rolling due to our suffering economy,” says Michelle Dalton, who coordinated the event. “We only hope this will continue to grow in subsequent years to include more organizations and help more people.”