As the excitement of homecoming week swept through campus, students carried their school spirit into a meaningful cause by donating perishable and non-perishable items to the food pantry.

The Northwestern State University of Louisiana’s Food Pantry received 13,606 items and raised $398 in cash donations during the 2024 Homecoming Food Drive.

The NSU Food Pantry offers students of NSU or the Bossier Parish Community College the opportunity to pick up necessary items such as groceries and toiletries at no cost.

On Thursday, Oct. 24, the President’s Leadership Program and NSU Residence Life hosted a food drive for Recognized Student Organizations (RSOs) and academic departments to donate items to the NSU food pantry from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The food pantry accepted donations that fell under several categories during the event: snacks, drinks, rice, pasta, pantry staples, breakfast items, meal essentials, canned meats, ready-to-eat meals, canned beans, vegetables or fruit, full-size toiletry items and household items.

All donation items were then tallied based on which RSO made the donation and factored into the homecoming competition.

Mary-Katherine Maggio, director of First Year Experience and student engagement, explained the significance of hosting a food drive competition alongside other homecoming festivities.

“Whenever you are asking organizations to participate in a competition, you have to cater to every type of organization,” Maggio said. “We have the dance competition with lip sync, we have the artistic organizations come out in the banner competition, but what about those service organizations or honor societies? This is where they thrive.”

Donations were tallied on a point-based system, where Maggio, Residential Life and student volunteers utilize pre-made score sheets to keep track of all donations.

RSOs were given the score sheet in advance to estimate how many items they planned to donate in order to reach their prospective point goals.

“We use a pre-made score sheet, so all of the organizations are provided this score sheet ahead of time and can make sure that they have the amount of points that they want to have,” Maggio said.

Though organizations are able to score themselves on the score sheets, all items are re-tally at the food drive event. Maggio explained that holding the event at the food pantry, rather than using a self-score method, allows students to learn more about it.

“It really raises awareness, some students don’t even know where the food pantry is so we host the event at the food pantry, then they see us take their donations and put them directly on the shelves of the food pantry,” Maggio said.

Along with spreading awareness, this event also plays an important part in displaying NSU’s initiative for service.

“I think that friendly competition is always great, but sometimes in a week like this, we need to remind our students what we’re here for, and that’s to serve,” Maggio said.

Kacy Young, senior history and hospitality management and tourism major, feels that serving the NSU community is an important part of homecoming.

“One thing that Northwestern really prides itself on is serving, serving others, so, I think it’s fantastic that they make it a part of the week,” Young said. “The pantry serves our student body, so it’s a really great service initiative for homecoming week because it serves our students.”

Young serves as the student coordinator for the NSU food pantry, and she is in charge of identifying what items are most used by students to include on the score sheet list during the food drive.

“It’s kind of my task, in recent years as a student coordinator, to find what is needed the most at the pantry during that time, because those things flow and change based on the needs of our students, then we put those as higher points,” Young said.

In her experience volunteering for the Homecoming Food Drive, Young realized that items that were worth more points came in much higher donation numbers. However, this created an uneven balance of items available in the pantry, so her focus this year was to prioritize food items. She also made a point to include items that are not typically available at the food pantry such as can openers and utensils.

Young shared how she feels about student participation in the event.

“It’s so awesome to me that our students serve in this capacity,” Young said. “I think a lot of people forget, because they do enjoy the competition aspect of it and it gets so fun, but at the end of the day they’re stocking this pantry and students that need these items are able to come in and get them.”

She acknowledges that there is a need in the campus community for the food pantry and that this event helps in fulfilling that need.

Before the NSU food pantry’s opening in 2015, Residential Life hosted its own Homecoming Food Drive which accepted donations for the Natchitoches Cane River Food Pantry. However, Stephanie Dyjack, general manager of Campus Living Villages at NSU’s University Housing, recognized the need within the campus community.

“In the past we donated to the local community the food we collected, but we really felt the students here at Northwestern needed our help with having the food available in the Pantry,” Dyjack said.

Dyjack feels that holding the food drive during homecoming allows for service to shine through amidst the homecoming spirit.

“I think it’s a time where the community really shows its support for the university and also leads to just having that Demon spirit in giving back to the university,” Dyjack said. “I always think it’s just wonderful to see our student organizations get involved; also instilling the idea of service and giving to others.”

During the food drive, Dyjack shared that the four leading organizations in the competition were the Presidential Ambassadors, President’s Leadership Program, Pi Kappa Phi Beta Omicron chapter fraternity and the Pi Kappa Alpha Mu Kappa chapter fraternity.

“So far we’ve got 4 organizations coming in with some really high numbers, a lot of food that we’re packing in, so that really keeps the pantry going and of course, there’s gonna be more,” Dyjack said.

A total of 14 different RSOs participated in the food drive this year.

Andrew Slater, junior hospitality management and tourism major and member of Pi Kappa Alpha, explained how his organization participated in the event.

“We all got together ‘food drive is coming up, we’re going to do the most, we’re going to try our best to do the most’ and so we had one of our fraternity brothers go buy that stuff so we can get points and we all tagged in on money,” Slater said.

He hopes Pi Kappa’s efforts in the homecoming competition will impact service events.

“I think it helps the community overall, it makes the campus better, feel better, and just helps out the community that uses the food pantry and needs it,” Slater said.

Any student or RSOs were able to participate in the food drive.

Brooke Straight, junior communication major, is the student volunteer work coordinator for the food pantry. She feels that for students or RSOs that are not involved in homecoming events such as the lip-sync battle or float-making, the food drive offers students an accessible opportunity to get involved.

“I feel like with all the different events of homecoming, the food pantry included, the donation, it gives people opportunities to be involved,” Straight said. “Especially the food pantry, donations is something that everyone can participate in, and then it also helps contribute to the community.”

Beyond her responsibilities as the student volunteer coordinator, Straight is involved in several other RSOs that participated in the food drive: including the Alpha Zeta chapter of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority and the Purple Jackets Club Honor Society. She explained that her organizations, and all NSU RSOs, are inspired to participate in the Homecoming Food Drive.

“Sometimes people might not be motivated to donate just because, if they’re not going to get any points even though that might be unfortunate, but with competition behind it, it gives people motivation and inspires them to try their best to represent their organization,” Straight said.

Katelen Bennett, freshman communication major, volunteered as a member of PLP to help sort, count and stock donations from the food drive. Bennett expressed a similar opinion to Straight in that homecoming plays a large part in volunteer participation at the food pantry.

“I think there is a significance to doing this during homecoming because a lot more people are involved or really want to help more than any other time,” Bennett said.

Community involvement thrived during the Homecoming Food Drive.

“This event helps support and appreciate the different services we provide here on campus. It also brings everyone together for a great cause,” Bennett said.

This event not only filled the food pantry with needed items but inspired the campus community in a spirit of giving during the homecoming season.