By RAEGAN NEUFELD
Tiger Media Network
Fort Hays State University’s annual SWIPE Out Hunger event on Saturday will benefit local organizations, providing “pantry packs” to the Tiger Food Pantry on campus and the Feeding Hays initiative at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church.
Set up for the event begins at 10 a.m. in the Memorial Union Black and Gold Room, and the meal packing will last from 12 to 3 p.m. Volunteers can register beforehand but can also show up on the day of the event without registering.
According to Director of Civic Learning and Engagement (CLE) Donnette Noble, this is the first year since she came to the university in 2019 that the meals will go to local organizations.
“I’m super excited about this because all of the food is going to stay local,” she said. “Usually, we go through a list of communities that are in really dire need of food and then we’ll select a location and that’s where all the meals go. This year, everything is staying here.”
Each “pantry pack” made on Saturday will include seven meals, and each meal will contain six servings. Packs that go to the Tiger Food Pantry will be available to FHSU students, while those that go to Feeding Hays will benefit local families.
“(Fr. Ben Houchen) is very concerned with the number of families whose children qualify for free and reduced lunches at schools,” Noble said. “So they have been working with USD 489 to make sure that some of those families get some of these pantry packs as well.”
SWIPE Out Hunger was started over 10 years ago by a leadership student. While it continues to be organized by CLE and the Leadership Program, Forsyth Library, Student Engagement and Global Affairs are also involved. Forsyth Library has hosted the event in past years, and Student Engagement provides help because of the student involvement.
“The reason we’ve tied (Global Affairs) into the project is because they are really focusing a lot of their efforts around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” Noble said. “There are 17 of those and one is directly related to food insecurity.”
While the event offers volunteer opportunities, it also showcases the focus of Civic Learning and Engagement, which is to develop a sense of serving for the greater good and public purpose.
“This is a really great example of how we bring more than a hundred people together every time we host this event to share and collaborate and have fun doing these types of events that have a really tangible benefit for people we want to serve with this programming,” Noble said.
Additionally, Noble said the event is a way to strengthen the community.
“When we work together collaboratively to do things like this to support our community, that helps everybody,” she said. “It just creates a stronger community because when people feel seen and heard and respected and they’re getting the support they need, that in turn makes them feel more part of the community and maybe they will find space to get involved.”