{"id":19249,"date":"2022-11-23T12:33:59","date_gmt":"2022-11-23T20:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=19249"},"modified":"2022-11-23T12:34:27","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T20:34:27","slug":"wou-underful-food-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wou-underful-food-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"WOU-underful Food Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by:Dakota Gange<\/span><\/p>\n

The holiday season is known for notoriously tough times. The gray skies exacerbate seasonal affective disorders, which can lead to a plethora of life complications. The cold and rainy weather means higher electric bills.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Western has a multitude of student support services to help combat these difficulties. Through visiting Abby\u2019s House on the first floor of the Werner University Center, students can find resources to aid in housing, food insecurity and basic needs. At the Student Health and Wellness Center, students can find quick and easy access to simple medical care and counseling, including couples counseling.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A unique benefit Western offers is the Food Pantry, located in the Welcome Center. One does not need to be a student to take advantage of the Food Pantry\u2019s resources. The Food Pantry operates on a nearly no questions asked basis. There is no limit on how much one can take or how often one can visit. The process is completely anonymous, with only two questions to answer at checkout\u2014 how many people one is shopping for and whether one is a community member or Western student.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the Food Pantry gets deliveries at the beginning of the month; so if one were to visit earlier this week, they\u2019d find virtually empty shelves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In response, Hunter Hall \u2014fourth year math major and ASWOU vice president\u2014 took to local businesses and ran a food drive. Ironically, though, the Independence Grocery Outlet was the only local business that agreed to collaborate in the effort by hosting a large container for community members to donate non-perishables.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hall did not let the lack of local business support keep him down \u2014he and his small team of volunteers collected enough non-perishables to practically fill a third of his office.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my job to set into motion events like this; I want to help my people,\u201d said Hall. \u201cIt feels good to give back; bringing in all the food to the pantry, it puts into perspective how much we actually got.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A pile of vividly colored food boxes and cans await distribution to the Food Pantry shelves, which could be as early as Thursday, making it available to the public after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The drive brought in 496 pounds of food.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hall put together a seven page guide that he hopes will be used in the future for annual fall food drives, with plans to run for ASWOU president for the 2023-24 school year. Maintaining open office hours, those desiring to engage with Hall can easily reach him in person or over Zoom. Hall encourages anyone who wants to talk with him to not hesitate to reach out \u2014 \u201cMy door is always open,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hall\u2019s updated office hours can be found posted on the front door of the ASWOU office in the Werner University Center, but are typically Mon<\/span> from <\/span>12 p.m. \u2013 2 p.m., Tue from 10 a.m. \u2013 12 p.m., Wed 1 p.m. \u2013 3:30 p.m., and Thu 12 p.m. \u2013 2 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information, frequently asked questions, or to volunteer at the Food Pantry, visit their website at https:\/\/wou.edu\/foodpantry\/.<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlmanagingeditor@wou.edu<\/span><\/p>\n



<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":19250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}