On Wednesday, March 3, Elizabethtown College hosted a Day of Service for all members of the campus community. To ensure that the community could spend the day focusing on a variety of service-oriented projects targeting the issues of food insecurity, physical health, and mental wellness, no classes were held.
All members of the campus community were encouraged to take advantage of the numerous service projects offered. Service projects were offered in both grab-and-go and in-person formats. The projects completed on the day included packaging meals for families in need, writing notes of gratitude, packing dental hygiene kits, and assembling plarn mats for the homeless.
Student-Athletes complete other projects as a team, including outreach to homebound and hospitalized, helping members of a nursing home, and cleaning up Etown’s Herr Stadium and Wolf Field.
Unto®, the humanitarian ministry of the Campus Crusade for Christ, coordinated the packaging of meals for refugee families in need around the world. As a Christian organization, Unto® ships humanitarian aid resources to their partners in some of the toughest places on earth, including over 30 countries in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia.
Through the four different packing sessions held on the Day of Service, participants prepared at over 40,000 meals of comprised of rice and beans. On average, each person’s involvement provided over 333 meals from a 90-minute packing session. Each box of 144 meals will feed a family of 5 a meal a day for a month, which means roughly 68 families will be provided with one meal a day for a month because of the work done by the campus community.
Steve Baker, the experience coordinator for Unto®, expressed his gratitude to Etown students, faculty, and staff for their hard work.
“I’d like to thank the entire Elizabethtown community for hosting an exceptional event that will relieve suffering, restore dignity, and reveal hope in some of the toughest places on earth,” he said. “We are eager to continue our partnership.”
The Day of Service was offered in the spirit of the College’s motto, “Educate for Service.”