By: Sarah Lovett
Theta Phi Chapter, Western Washington University

The Theta Phi Chapter at Western Washington University organized and participated in a major canned food drive to benefit the Bellingham Food Bank. Members and pledges spent the morning and afternoon on Friday, February 26th collecting non-perishable items to donate to the food bank. During the late winter and early spring the Bellingham Food Bank experiences a shortage of food to feed the many families that rely on them for their sustenance. It is of the greatest importance that organizations such as Beta Alpha Psi do all they can to help keep the shelves at the food bank stocked full of nutritious food.

Members and pledges worked in teams to collect as much food as possible in a 5-hour period. The teams were creative in their attempts to bring in the most food. Some chose to stand outside local grocery stores and hand out flyers hoping shoppers would return with donations, others went door to door, and many raided their own cupboards as well as those of family and friends. Professor David Gilbertson even got in on the project. He collected 2 large bags of food by simply encouraging his students to bring canned food to class. If he called on a student and the student produced a can of food, they could, 'pass' on the question he was planning to ask them!

Ultimately, our chapter collected over 870 pounds of non-perishable food which was donated to the Bellingham Food Bank. There was so much food it filled two small pickup trucks. The Food Bank was very grateful when we arrived at its doors at 4:00pm - they said that the amount of food we collected will keep the Food Bank in operation for an entire week. We are very proud of our accomplishment and have decided to implement the food drive into our chapter's activities as an annual springtime event.

From L-R: Emily Allwardt, Jeff Klingensmith, Jodi Greear, Tara Powell, Briana Turner-King, Tom Bernard, Bret Scott, Cathy O'Donnell, Elizabeth McEuen, Sarah Lovett, Laura Richardson, Nathan Close