CUH’s Transfer Club is hosting its first community service canned food drive event in collaboration with Hawaii FoodBank. The food drive started on Nov. 6. The Transfer Club was trying to find a Covid-friendly opportunity for students to give back to the community more directly.

“We were trying to find different Transfer Club opportunities that might be transfer student specific kind of community service oriented things,” said club advisor, Avi Gonzalez. “However, with the pandemic, there just wasn’t quite the opportunities that we had originally anticipated, but we still wanted to make sure we did something to give back.”

The donation box is located in front of the Office of Student Activities and Leadership (OSAL) office in Ching Hall. Anyone can participate, and Dec. 4 is the last day the club will be dropping off the food donations at Hawaii FoodBank. Kamy Gu, Transfer Club treasurer and secretary, coordinated the collaboration with Hawaii FoodBank. Autumn Fairall, president of the Transfer Club, stated that Hawaii FoodBank has opportunities for people to volunteer to sort food and put it in boxes and that that was something the club would participate in during the spring semester.

“We know with this troubling time, it’s really hard for families to make ends meat,” Fairall said. “We thought it was a good way to take some of the pressure off of the families but easy enough that students wouldn’t find it overwhelming, and we thought it would be helpful.”

The club highly recommends canned items such as proteins, vegetables, fruits, and rice. So far, the club has accumulated over 146 pounds of canned food. Gu and Brittany Doro, vice president of the club, have been making runs from CUH to the food bank as the stash of donations grow.

“The canned food drive has been really good, we’ve had actually quite a bit of donations. Every day I walk through and I’m like ‘Oh look we have more!’ So I think people are really responsive,” Gonzalez said.

When asked about what she wanted CUH students to know about the food bank, Gonzalez encouraged others to give.

“I always think empathy is the key to being charitable,” she said. “I think if you can remember that there are people who have different experiences than you, it makes you grateful for what experiences you have, but it also helps you do that extra something for those people because you just don’t know how far it can go.”

Gonzalez stated that the club is doing its best to support Hawaii FoodBank in any way it can. According to hawaiifoodbank.org, Since mid-March, it has had to purchase more than $8.5 million worth of emergency food. Its regular annual budget is $400,000. Also, since Nov. 8, it has distributed over 19 million pounds of food. Gonzalez said the food drive is an easy community service opportunity for students that are interested in doing something for the community in a safe way.

“You’d be surprised that you can do a little and how far a little can go,” Gonzalez sad. “So you don’t know you can make somebody’s day and it’s 2020 so whatever we can do to make anybody’s day a bit better, I think we all have a responsibility to do it and I think you’ll feel better about it in the end. I think that fits Chaminade’s mission.”

For cash donations or if you have any further questions, concerns, or want more information about the food drive, please email [email protected].