Students assist in community food assistance effort on MLK Day

Students and community members got together at the UNI Dome on Jan. 16 to pack meals for children facing food insecurity in the Cedar Valley. 

Junior Lydia Richwine went to this event along with many other students involved in the volunteer club. “I would guess 4,000 people in total between both shifts, but I am not sure. I also don’t really know how many people from the high school came, but there were a lot of students. There were also a lot of other groups there as well, so I wouldn’t say it was mostly students; you could just find a lot of people from any age group there,” she said. 

The program was started by the Northeast Iowa Food Bank in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. to give service in his memory.

“My experience with the bag packing event was really good; my job was clear to me, and it was fun to pack things up as well. I would recommend it to anyone considering joining this event next year, and I hope the number of volunteers for this event continues to grow,” Richwine said. This year the event had 2,000 participants compared to last year’s 1,100 volunteers. Last year 48,000 bags of food were packed and with the increased number the new goal was 80,000 bags.