Project Joy finishes this summer’s Joy Bags, fighting food insecurity

As incoming students at The College of St. Scholastica prepare for the academic year ahead, several are taking the opportunity to give back to their new community through Community Service Orientation (CSO). On the second day of the program, CSO members volunteered with Project Joy, an organization dedicated to fighting childhood food insecurity in northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin, where 1 in 9 kids face hunger.

Throughout the summer, Project Joy has mobilized volunteers to pack up to 370 bags of food each week, in partnership with the Union Gospel Mission. Last year alone, they distributed over 4,300 bags to families in need. This week marked the conclusion of Project Joy’s summer program, and several Saints participated in the final packing event. CSO Co-Coordinator Jadyn Lind ’26 shared her enthusiasm about the experience with WDIO: “I’ve lived in Duluth my whole life, and I never heard of Project Joy. So I was really excited, because I’m coordinating the Community Service Orientation this year. It was exciting to see it firsthand.”

Lind noted that some of the bags will be handed out at different locations where other CSO student volunteers will be later this week. “Helping out today was really cool; we had never helped out with Project Joy before. We’ve done Second Harvest and other sort of like food bank service sites, but today was really cool in how quick we got everything together and in the van.”

This year, Community Service Orientation consists of 20 first-year participants, alongside 7 student leaders and 2 co-coordinators, all dedicated to engaging with local non-profits. You can view the full interview and video coverage of this impactful effort on WDIO’s website.