Pi Sigma Epsilon has found a way to utilize unused student flex meals from the dining center to benefit those who are in need.
Pi Sigma Epsilon is a national sales and marketing co-ed fraternity.
We thought, how about we bring in people to the dining centers and show them the UNI experience and what students are like,” said Courtney Clark, junior supply chain and economics major and project manager for the flex meals project. Clark is a member of PSE.
The idea, brought by David Spengler, sophomore finance major and PSE member, last semester, was to connect members in the Cedar Falls/Waterloo area to students who had extra dining center meals. That way, meals already paid for by students are not lost due to lack of use.
“We want to show how great the community is and also provide them with a meal for the night,” Spengler said.
Pi Sigma Epsilon has asked students to sign up to donate their meals through an online survey including their name, major and when they are available to meet with families who benefit from this program.
Participating families, registered with the Northeast Iowa Food Bank, indicate when they are available to meet and how many family members plan on attending the meal.
One week after opening the survey, Pi Sigma Epsilon received 383 meals (approximately $3887) from 50 students to help pay for the 160 family members who are interested in attending.
“We were concerned that students wouldn’t want to sit with them and they wouldn’t want to donate meals, we just sent it out there and got 400 meals in a week,” Clark said. “Our goal was having 200 people come in and we are sitting right at that goal.”
This project has been an innovation for the state of Iowa and a model that other state universities are starting to consider implementing. Mark Hansen, instructor of marketing and the advisor of PSE, is focusing on the possible future benefits of the program.
“What better way to get that person interested in finding out a way to go to school than giving them a little taste of college life?” Hansen said. “If I could reach out to a needy family who could be going to college one day . . . who knows what that could mean for enrollment numbers at UNI?”
The objective of donating the meals and having students sit down with families is to provide a connection and share stories of their lives.
Due to the overwhelming popularity of the first round of meals dispersed for the Thanksgiving time period, PSE has offered to host another round December.
There is no limit as to how many meals a student wishes to donate and there is no cutoff deadline. Simply go to the Survey Monkey site PSE has offered and complete the necessary information.
“This is a great opportunity that we have made our own,” Hansen said.
