DePaul organizes canned food drive

DePaul's annual canned food drive kicked off in early October in order to fight hunger and poverty in Chicago neighborhoods.

"Our goal for this fall was to have the food drive and have as many students, faculty, and staff participating as possible with the time we have," said Aleene Morgenthaler, a junior, who is head of the organization, DePaul Can.

Although all non-perishable items are welcomed, whole grain cereal, rice, pasta, pasta sauce, macaroni and cheese, peanut butter, jelly, beans, canned meat, stew, soup, canned vegetables, canned fruit, and shelf-stable milk are items in high demand. This year over 20 departments are participating in the annual food drive and many departments have posted information on their websites and have advocated the importance of the drive.

"The food drive is going pretty slow for the College of Communication," said Lauren Upton, a College of Communication academic advisor and head of the drive for the college with Elizabeth Gayton. "Our goal is to collect ten boxes, but we have only collected one," she said.

Collecting for the food drive can be complicated because each department has a different location for the donated goods.

"I really wanted to get more involved this year and I thought that doing the canned food drive would be a great way to do that," Upton said. "There needs to be more signage around the school, especially during registration week."

Donations will be picked up on the Lincoln Park Campus Nov. 14.

"Next year I want to change my role in the drive," Morgenthaler said. "We need fellow students who are really interested in the drive to be able to take reigns on different aspects of the drive: marketing, volunteer management, event coordinator, communications."