St. Scholastica's Spring Community Day focuses on feeding the hungry locally and globally, and on lobbyin at the capitol

Release Date: 02/15/13

DULUTH, MN -  The College of St. Scholastica's Community Day on Feb. 27 will involve hundreds of students delivering free 'Thanksgiving in the Spring' meals locally to those in need, as well as volunteers working on campus to provide food packs for Feed My Starving Children - an international organization that prepares and delivers food to famine-stricken countries. Additionally, faculty, students and staff will travel to the State Capitol in St. Paul to demonstrate their support for the Minnesota State Grant program.

Students in St. Scholastica's first-year Dignitas program are preparing the Thanksgiving in the Spring meals. As a way to reach more people in need, they will deliver home meals to local Duluth non-profit agencies such as the Damiano Center, CHUM Drop-In Center and The New San Marcos agency. Students will also deliver meals to homebound residents. Dinners will include turkey, mashed potatoes, vegetables, rolls and dessert. 

Jay Newcomb, St. Scholastica's coordinator of service learning, said the spring Community Day is a balanced combination of meeting needs in the local community and across the world. 

"We have about 500 volunteers working on the meals to be delivered in our community and the same number working on the food pack for meals to be sent abroad," he said. "This Community Day is an expression of our Benedictine value of hospitality."

The Feed My Starving Children project's goal is to prepare 100,000 meals in food packs. Five hundred volunteers are needed. Most volunteer shifts are filled, but the public is welcome to sign up for remaining slots. Volunteers will be packing food at Storm's Den on campus from noon until 7 p.m. Monetary donations are also needed. Visit http://www2.css.edu/app/community/index.cfm for more information.

The third component of St. Scholastica's spring community day involves more than 100 of the College's students, faculty, and staff participating in a lobbying effort in support of the Minnesota State Grant Program. The program provides need-based aid for low- and middle-income college students at public and private colleges and universities across the state. The St. Scholastica group is expected to be among the largest contingents from among Minnesota private colleges to attend the event, which is known as Day at the Capitol. St. Scholastica's group will leave campus at 7 a.m. from the Mitchell Auditorium parking lot and return to campus at 4 p.m.

PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES MONDAY, FEB. 25, AND TUESDAY, FEB. 26:

• STUDENTS WILL PREPARE 'THANKSGIVING IN THE SPRING' MEALS FROM 3 TO 7 P.M. IN THE GREENVIEW DINING ROOM KITCHEN.

PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES WEDNESDAY, FEB. 27:

• STUDENT LOBBYISTS WILL LEAVE FOR THE CAPITOL AT 7 A.M. IN THE MITCHELL AUDITORIUM PARKING LOT AND RETURN AT 4 P.M.
• STUDENTS WILL PREPARE FOR HOME DELIVERIES FROM 8 TO 11 A.M. IN THE GREENVIEW DINING ROOM. THEY WILL LEAVE TO DELIVER MEALS AT 10 A.M., 1 P.M. AT THE SOMERS HALL LOADING DOCK ON CAMPUS.   
• STUDENTS WILL PREPARE 'FEED MY STARVING CHILDREN' FOOD PACKS IN STORM'S DEN ON CAMPUS. THEY WILL WORK IN TWO-HOUR SHIFTS STARTING AT NOON, 2:30, AND 5 P.M.
• ST. SCHOLASTICA FRESHMAN DIGNITAS STUDENTS WILL BE PROVIDING A MEAL AND READING TO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM 5 TO 7 P.M. AT NETTLETON ELEMENTARY IN DULUTH.

For more information contact Jay Newcomb at (218) 723-6552 or jnewcomb@css.edu.

The College of St. Scholastica is regularly recognized as one of the finest colleges in the Midwest. The 2013 "America's Best Colleges" survey by U.S. News & World Report magazine ranks St. Scholastica in the top tier of Midwestern universities