Volunteer LSU partnered with the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank to host College Night on Tuesday evening to get students involved in the community.
The Food Bank, located of South Choctaw Drive has helped 11 parishes within their service area for over 35 years. In 2023, it distributed 11.1 million meals and had a total of 56,327 volunteer hours.
“It is exciting to see young people to come in and help contribute to their local community,” said the bank’s Senior Communications Coordinator Kristen Bellatti. “It doesn’t matter if they’re Baton Rouge natives or not. As long as they live here this is their current community.”
According to Data Usa, a platform that compiles public data from the U.S. government, 24% of the Greater Baton Rouge population lives in poverty. In the East Baton Rouge parish, 64,020 individuals are considered food insecure – making the insecurity rate 14.1%.
College night is held here twice a year, in March and September. Many LSU clubs volunteered at the event and gained valuable knowledge on food insecurity and how much it impacts our community.
“I feel like we have such an opportunity,” said LSU English freshman and Orthodox Christian Fellowship President Nora Dreher. “Like we’re lucky to live here but it definitely has its challenges. I think as LSU students we are really given a lot of opportunities that we don’t really realize.”
The Food Bank was created in 1984 during the worst economic depression Baton Rouge has ever encountered. The bank was organized to help this problem as an extension of the preexisting Urban Ministries Coalition. The first “home” of the Food Bank was the parking lot of the Victoria Baptist Church.
“I like where we’re at now,” Bellatti said. “I’ve seen the Food Bank grow leaps and bounds. Even the staff has almost doubled in the last three and a half years I’ve been here.”
The bank has implemented multiple new programs, like College Day, to get the community more involved. Today, under the direction of Mike Manning, the bank has blossomed into a place where individuals can contribute greatly towards the place they call home.
The Food Bank is always looking for more volunteers. Volunteers’ level of experience does not matter. It’s just looking for people who want to make a difference and have fun doing so. If students are unsure how to get involved, Bellatti says to “start with the Food Bank.”
“We have different areas that students have the opportunity to volunteer in,” Bellatti said.
On campus, LSU also has a smaller club known as the Food Recovery Network that can help students get into the world of volunteering. The organization recovers leftover food from the 459 Commons and repacks it in mini fridges located in the African American Cultural Center, the Women’s Center and the Ogden Honors College.
“I think volunteering is just like gratitude,” Dreher said. “I think for your community and where you live. And if we don’t help each other then who’s going to help us when we need it?”
