Volunteers from Southwest Virginia Community College (Southwest), including students, faculty, and staff, packaged over 37,500 meals and donated them to local food pantries. Over 200 volunteers participated, offering a valuable learning experience and an opportunity to impact food insecurity in the community.
Bulk food materials will be sorted, weighed, packaged, and boxed. Local food pantries serving residents in the college’s four-county service area will be given free packaged meals to distribute. Meals will also be delivered to the college’s “Food for Thought” food pantries on the main campus and at the college’s Bluefield Center and Southern Gap Center.
“I am proud of the volunteer service work our students, faculty, and staff are doing. The Day of Service offers our students a chance to give back and enrich their educational experience while they are students with us here at Southwest,” said Dr. Tommy Wright, President of Southwest. “This is more than just a day of volunteering; It is a chance for us to unite for a cause that reaches beyond our campus.”
Since becoming President at Southwest in 2018, Wright has inspired the campus community to engage in service events. This led to the college’s first Day of Service in 2019, an initiative that has since become a biannual event.
The bulk food was sourced from The Outreach Program, a 501 (c)(3) organization with a mission to provide safe water, medical care, food, and education to children and those in need at home and abroad.
Local food pantries picked up all the food at the college after the event. These pantries will distribute food to people in need living in and around the college’s four-county service area of Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell, and Tazewell counties.
