University Dining announced last week the results of the "Share Your Bowl" food donation program that it implemented jointly with Kellogg's earlier this semester. In accordance with its pledge to donate a quantity of cereal equal to that consumed by University students during the monthlong program, Kellogg's contributed an impressive 10,944 bowls of cereal to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.
This total vastly exceeded the 6,400 servings of cereal Kellogg's expected to contribute, and all three parties involved - the University, the food bank and the company itself - deserve credit for the program's success. Dining should continue to pursue such community-oriented initiatives in the future, and can make them even more effective by engaging students with coordinate attempts at educational outreach.
The "Share Your Bowl" initiative emerged from Kellogg's Food Away from Home program, through which it provides cereal to University dining halls. Brent Beringer, the University's director of dining services, said representatives from Kellogg's "came to us with an idea that they would like to try and find a way to work with us and the students to help the community," and that Dining suggested making a contribution to the food bank would be a good approach. With the food bank facing an unprecedented demand for its services - 145,600 unique individuals were served in 2010, a 152 percent increase from nine years earlier - there hardly could have been a more worthy recipient of the company's largesse.
Moreover, Kellogg's and Dining agreed to structure the program in an original way by measuring contributions in terms of bowls rather than weight. This was meant to make it easier for students to understand the impact that their cereal consumption was having toward the program. "So often we talk in terms of pounds, which doesn't have a lot of meaning as opposed to a bowl which will put off hunger now," Beringer said.
The food bank also deserves praise for working with Kellogg's to ensure the program provided nutritious cereal options to the needy. "Non-sugary stuff is what we try to encourage donors" to give, said Lawrence Zippin, CEO of the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, and the two groups came to a "mutual understanding" that Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies would be the two types of cereal donated. This was a thoughtful consideration given that the food bank often serves low-income and minority individuals who are at elevated risk of health complications such as diabetes.
The program is bound to have a positive impact within the Charlottesville community, and it already is serving as a model for similar undertakings at schools such as James Madison University, New York University and Duquesne University. Yet it could have been even better if Dining had added a stronger educational component. As it stood, the only way students participated in the program was by eating cereal, something they would have done anyway. Although Beringer said Dining measured a slight increase in cereal consumption when the program was in effect, he noted that there is "no way to know if the same amount wouldn't have been consumed" otherwise.
If Dining engages in such partnerships in the future, it should strive to involve students actively in helping the less fortunate. Although the basic features of the "Share Your Bowl" program were outlined on table tents and signs at the entrances of the dining halls, such outreach would have been more effective if it had included facts and figures about hunger in the Charlottesville area, as well as information about other ways that students could combat it. Advertising the food bank's contact information or inviting members of Madison House who volunteer there to table at dining halls, for example, would be ways to ensure that the impacts of food donation programs last well into the future.
Encouragingly, Beringer acknowledged educational efforts "certainly could have been a good add-on" to the program. He also cited Dining's strong relationship with Campus Kitchen, a food donation contracted independent organization, as a potential model for stimulating student interest. Additionally, he said "anything we can do to get our partner suppliers to help out in the community is something we will continue to pursue." If Dining can integrate students into these projects, then the benefits provided to the Charlottesville community will be even more substantial and long-lasting.
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