Students Today, Alumni Tomorrow (STAT) is organizing a Brown Bag Project for Tuesday, February 24. The event will be held in the diner atrium from 6:00pm to 8:00pm.
Students, alumni, faculty and staff are encouraged to participate by making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and putting together the bagged lunches. STAT is also asking for donations of peanut butter, jelly, chips, juice boxes and fruit snacks. The bagged lunches will then be delivered to feed the hungry in community shelters.
STAT has organized numerous Brown Bag Projects since 2008, and has made about 6,800 bagged lunches in that time.
“Last semester, our Brown Bag Project was very successful. We made over 700 lunches in two hours, and donated them to shelters around the Chicagoland area,” said Nashawnda Foster, a student representative of STAT.
The student participation has increased throughout the years and the Brown Bag Project has become a cherished tradition for many in the Saint Xavier community. Many students, faculty, staff and alumni generously contribute food and their time to make the project a success every semester.
“During my first year here at SXU, I saw students and alumni gathering in the diner making sandwiches and I thought, ‘It looks like they’re having fun, I should go check it out,’ and here I am, now in my senior year coordinating these projects – proof that these Brown Bag Projects are fun, successful and have become an SXU tradition every semester,” Foster said. “Each year, more and more students participate and we hope to keep that trend going.”
The Brown Bag Project is one of the many service projects organized by STAT. The mission of Students Today, Alumni Tomorrow is to educate the Saint Xavier community on the importance of philanthropy and provide students with opportunities to be a part of service projects and other philanthropic efforts. STAT hopes to instill in students the mission of Saint Xavier before they graduate.
“Service is one of the eight core values of Saint Xavier University and members of the STAT group are committed to living out those values with our actions, both inside and outside the SXU community. Small acts of kindness can change a person’s life,” said Foster.
In addition to organizing the lunch projects in the 2014-2015 school year, members of STAT repackaged more than 11,600 pounds of potatoes at the Chicago Food Depository for families in need. They also teamed up with Campus Ministry and collected non-perishable items for Catholic Charities as a part of the “Holiday Harvest” food drive. Volunteers also took over the intersection at 95th and Cicero and raised $7,000 for Misericordia Heart of Mercy.
Anyone who has questions about the Brown Bag Project or would like to get involved with STAT’s other projects can contact the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations at 773-298-3316 or alumni@sxu.edu.
Foster hopes that even more students become involved with STAT and believes that the Brown Bag Projects are the perfect opportunities for any student to make a difference in their community.
“If any student feels like they want to help others in need, but don’t know how, they should get involved with the Brown Bag Projects. It’s not a huge time commitment, and they will leave feeling good about themselves,” Foster said.
Yasmeen Abdellatif
News Correspondent