It is the end of the semester, and we have begun cleaning months of balled-up paper, forgotten dead pens and gum wrappers out of the bottom of our backpacks. If you have a backpack you don’t use anymore, participate in the New Paltz Backpack Give Back! From April 27 to May 19, there will be donation boxes around campus for people to donate backpacks, which will be filled with food from the New Paltz Food Pantry and given to children who are food insecure.
There is someone who needs it more than you do; each week, the New Paltz Rotary Club packs food in backpacks for 50 local families struggling with food insecurity. The backpacks allow privacy and while many families return the backpacks so they can be repacked, this is not always possible. Donating an old bag will allow food to be delivered to someone in need.
Each bag will have a handwritten note of encouragement from a New Paltz Student, written at the writing event that was held Tuesday, March 3 in the SUB.
Donation boxes can be found in the SUB near the elevators on the 1st and 2nd floors, EOP Office in HAB 19, Athletic & Wellness Center by the check in desk, Disability Resource Center in HAB 2nd floor, the Food Pantry in SUB 307, Career Resource Center in Humanities 105, the Sojourner Truth Library lobby, in Wooster by Element 93, UPD Lobby in Service Building #100 which has 24-hour access and the Van den Burg first floor lounge.
If you don’t have a backpack to spare but you want to support this initiative by donation, you can Venmo @NewPaltzRotaryFoundation-1 or PayPal @newpaltzrotaryfoundation. Add a note specifying you are donating to the Backpack Give Back.
This program is brought to you by the Rotary Club with All4Jesus, Alpha Phi Omega, the Catholic Campus Ministry, Delta Alpha Pi, the Disability Resource Center, the Episcopal Campus Ministry and the Student Christian Center. You, too, can join the effort to help food insecurity in New Paltz! For more information or any questions, contact Stephanie Blaisdell at blaisdes@newpaltz.edu.
