For two weeks the Collins Memorial Library and the Office of Spirituality, Services, and Social Justice at the University of Puget Sound will be co-sponsoring the Food for Fines program. Food for Fines is an event supporting the annual National Hunger Week, and from Nov. 15 through Nov. 28, students will be able to bring in canned food items in order to pay off their library fines. Each six ounce or larger can of food brought to the Library’s Circulation Desk during the event will deduct one dollar in library fines and/or Summit fines. Donations up to 20 dollars will be deducted.
National Hunger Week is co-sponsored by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Student Campaign Against Hunger & Homelessness. The annual event takes place Nov. 14 through Nov. 20, but Puget Sound is extending National Hunger Week throughout the entire month of November.
“We organize Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week because as a campus we are committed to civic engagement. Hunger Week is one way we can raise awareness of hunger, poverty, and homelessness worldwide as well as right here in Tacoma,” explained Puget Sound Social Justice Coordinator Skylar Bihl.
Some of the events have already occurred this month, including an installment of the Spirituality of Food Dinner Series: “Blessed are the Hungry?” on Nov. 2, and the Points Donation event that occurred in the SUB the week of Nov. 8 through Nov. 12. Upcoming events include the Nov. 13 Human Trafficking Conference, which is an all-day event filled with different speakers and workshops. On Nov. 15 there will be a Hunger Banquet sponsored by the Office of Spirituality, Services, and Social Justice, and Justice and Service in Tacoma (JuST) where, Bihl explains, “we get a stark look at the hunger and poverty threatening much of the world’s population.” Lastly, the fifth annual New Light Celebration will be on Nov. 18 and will observe different fall and winter spiritual and religious traditions.
“While there are many ways for students to get involved in service here in Tacoma on an ongoing basis, Hunger Week serves to bring issues to our attention and provides easy ways for students [to] give during a busy time in the semester. It is important to reflect on our lives and experiences; what we have or may not have, and put that in the global context. We need to be asking difficult questions about why so much hunger exists in the world both abroad and here at home. Hunger Week offers a time and space dedicated to this discussion and gives participants opportunities to begin making a difference. The need is great and every little bit helps,” says Bihl.