NYPIRG organizes food drive to assist neighboring community
By Britney Nowak
On March 13, 2013
The New York Public Interest Research Group has organized a door-to-door food drive as part
of their Hunger and Homelessness campaign.
Students and other volunteers at the "Trick-or-Eat" event March 13 and 14 will be targeting the
area directly across from McKinley High School. The collected food will be donated to a food
bank in West Seneca.
The first night, the group will deliver paper bags with notes explaining the event. The following
day, 10 to 15 students will knock on doors around the area to collect non-perishables.
Last semester NYPIRG volunteers collected 300 pounds of food. This semester their goal is to
collect 500 to 600 pounds.
"I think it's an important issue," said Sasha Nivar, a member of NYPIRG. "Whether people are
interested or not, I think it lessens the apathy."
According to the NYPIRG website, more than 3 million people are homeless every year
including 1.3 million children. The website also says that 38,000 homeless people sleep in New
York City shelters every night, and thousands more sleep on city streets and in other public
places.
"It's really sad to hear how many people in Erie County are homeless on a given night," said
Patricia Ceravole, coordinator for Buffalo State's NYPIRG chapter. "Year-round this is a huge
issue for our area, because we do have a high homeless population."
The major causes of homelessness according to NYPIRG's website include eviction,
overcrowded housing, domestic violence, and hazardous housing conditions.
"I think people are disconnected with homeless people in terms of who they are and how they
got to that place in their life," said Nivar. "They are not bad people."
The weather also affects the homeless population in Buffalo, according to Ceravole.
"Anybody that does not have stable shelter, with the weather out there, it makes life for them
very difficult," she said.
Ceravole also said that it's important for students to be aware of the risk they have of ending up
in a similar situation.
"It is so easy to end up in a situation where you are hungry or homeless," she said. "Especially
with students graduating with tremendous amounts of loan debt. They are graduating into a very
unwelcoming job market."
This food drive is one event in a series of events dedicated to the Hunger and Homelessness
campaign.
"This is one of our biggest campaigns that students get involved in," said Ceravole.
The campaign will cover multiple areas of Buffalo to aid in ending hunger and creating a public
awareness about what it is like to be homeless.
"There are thirteen different shelters throughout the Buffalo area that we will be donating to,"
Ceravole said. "Some of them are typical food shelters where people come in for a meal. Some
of them are temporary housing for 10 to 15 adults."
In April, volunteers are going to prepare paper bags filled with sandwiches, snacks, and drinks
and deliver them to different shelters.
The events taken place here also take place across the state.
"We have chapters just like this one on 20 different college campuses across the state,"
Ceravole said. "Everything that we work on is a collaborative effort statewide."
Britney Nowak can be reached by email at nowak.record@live.com.
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