Though Thanksgiving was still weeks away, Syeisha Byrd sat in Hendricks Chapel’s Office of Engagement Programs as people dropped off bags and bags of turkey, cranberry sauce and potatoes in front of her.

‘I would be sitting in my office and individual students would just come by and drop stuff off,’ said Byrd, the director of the Office of Engagement Programs. ‘Even though staff and faculty donated, the majority came from students.’

The office collected 67 bags of food during its annual Thanksgiving drive. At the end of the drive on Nov. 17, the office distributed the bags to the Faith Hope Community Center, Huntington Family Center, Inc. and other local organizations. Both the Faith Hope and Huntington centers focus on services for local families.

Syracuse University students contributed by donating canned food and other products, starting Nov. 1. Student athletic teams, such as volleyball, track and field, cheerleading, soccer and women’s softball, as well as the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, contributed to the cause.

The Office of Engagement Programs sponsors this yearly event to show support to the community and to offer a helping hand to those in need. The main goal of the event is providing enough food so that everyone could celebrate Thanksgiving, Byrd said.

‘A lot of this food came from student groups as well as the gift cards that were donated came from the athletic department,’ Byrd said.

Students had the opportunity to give stuffing, cranberry sauce, potatoes and other traditional Thanksgiving side dishes. They could also donate gift cards to a local grocery store for the purchase of a turkey. Each bag contained nine of the required Thanksgiving-themed items that were donated.

The office held a packaging party on the last day of the drive with the help of about 50 students. They packed up several bags of food, each containing at least 10 items.

‘We divided everything into groups. Corn and gravy, we did all that with some help from the (volunteers),’ Byrd said.

The volunteers created an assembly line to speed up the packaging. Lists of the required foods were stapled to each bag, and each food item was checked off the list when it went in the bag. When the bag was full, it was put to the side. Byrd had scheduled the packaging party to last for three hours, but all of the bags were done in an hour.

This event has lasted for more than 18 years. The Office of Engagement Programs is planning on doing another Thanksgiving food drive next year with a goal of obtaining 100 bags.

‘It is a time to bring family together,’ Byrd said. ‘It’s all about the harvest of food. But more or less, it is a time to bring the family together around the table with food and conversation.’

obcampos@syr.edu

Published on November 29, 2010 at 12:00 pm