By Eva Booth
This story was updated on Nov. 18 at 11:56 AM.
For the 10th anniversary of Good Neighbor Day Saturday, the University of Maryland decided to do its first ever fill-a-bus food drive to fight food insecurity.
“The food drive is meant to give nourishing, easy meals to our families that don’t have those types of things at their availability,” fill-a-bus project leader Cameron Thurston said. “People are still struggling, and we’re just trying to be the most direct way to help them.”
One in five UMD students do not have food security, the University of Maryland Counseling Center Research Unit found in 2017. Applications for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides low-income people with money to buy food, almost doubled between July 2019 and July 2020 in Prince George’s County.
“If you are a student and don’t have anything to eat, how can you be successful?” said Gloria Aparicio Blackwell, the Office of Community Engagement’s founding director.
Good Neighbor Day is an annual day of service in the College Park community organized by UMD, College Park and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. They teamed up to hold one food drive on campus near the Adele H. Stamp Student Union Friday and one at Ikea on Saturday. The Office of Community Engagement donated the food to UMD’s Campus Pantry and the College Park Community Food Bank.
Blackwell said the organization tries to mix up the food drive every year to expand Good Neighbor Day’s reach.
“We wanted to be a bit more creative, innovative, and rally other groups. So now the Department of Transportation is part of this partnership with us,” she said.
Students, faculty members and members of the College Park community gathered to donate the food — the Student Government Association and UMD Athletics even competed against each other to see who could donate more.
Daniel Cutaneo, a senior information science major, donated a box of food to the drive.
“Having access to food and water is a human right and everybody should have access to it,” he said.
Good Neighbor Day also included tree planting events, litter removal and virtual workshops covering topics like African-American history, relationships and financial literacy.
For people struggling with food insecurity, the University of Maryland’s Campus Pantry provides emergency food to UMD students, faculty, and staff in need. It’s located next to the South Campus Dining Hall.
Featured image: A sign reading “Food drive” hangs in the windshield of a Shuttle-UM bus. Photo courtesy of the Office of Community Engagement.
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