Students from Kennesaw State University gathered to put together 2,004 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches — surpassing their goal of 1,800 — for Clyde’s Kitchen recently as part of KSU’s Homelessness Awareness Week.
More than 50 students showed up to KSU’s Marietta campus ballrooms to create the sandwiches from bread, peanut butter and jelly donated from different university departments and through gift cards provided by Kroger, one of Campus Awareness, Resource and Empowerment Service’s partners.
“It’s completely a service to the community,” said Marcy Stidum, founder and director of CARE services. “Clyde’s can depend on there to be a reliable partner during this time of the year when it’s starting to get cold and a lot more people are coming to the soup kitchens, and different places like that, looking for food.”
Clyde’s Kitchen has partnered with KSU for the past four years and has been serving more than 60,000 meals to Atlanta’s hungry since 1997 as part of Crossroads Community Ministries in Atlanta.
This was the 11th Homelessness Awareness Week at KSU, and some of the student volunteers who helped with this year’s event included members of the Honors Club and the President’s Emerging Global Scholars.
“When I heard that Clyde’s Kitchen was trying to make 1,800 sandwiches, I knew that was no small feat,” said Honors Club President and junior business student Josh Wolfe as he spread peanut butter on a slice of bread. “I wanted to make sure to kind of give back.”
The element of giving back is something that Homelessness Awareness Week is designed to cultivate in the students who participate. The meal preparation for Clyde’s Kitchen was just one part of the 10 events scheduled throughout the week.
“[The students] know, ‘I did something. I did something to help somebody,’” Stidum said. “Sometimes you want to have an instant impact, because change is a long-term impact and it takes time, so it’s nice to have these moments where you know you made an instant impact.”
More information about CARE services and the programs and services it offers can be found at care.kennesaw.edu.
Who’s doing good?
Each Sunday, we write about a deserving individual, charity events such as fun-runs, volunteer projects and other community gatherings that benefit a good cause. To suggest an event or person for us to cover,
contact us at ajc.doinggood@gmail.com.
About the Author
