When it comes to the events hosted by organizations on campus, activities and games are planned to get the entire student body involved as well as raise money or collect items for their philanthropies.
Lambda Chi Alpha will host a potato drop Saturday at 8 a.m. The event will take place on 1505 Main St., and is open for anyone who would like to participate.
Lambda Chi is partnering with Feeding America to introduce this new spring event in order to better serve the community.
According to its website, Feeding America is a national hunger-relief charity that strives to feed America’s hungry through food banks around the country.
The group follows a Statement of Values that includes respect, stewardship and accountability, collaboration, urgency, service, integrity, diversity and inclusion.
By partnering with this charity organization, the members of Lambda Chi take part in the goal to feed those who are hungry and in need. Each fall, the fraternity hosts an event to gather food for the various food banks in the Murray-Calloway community.
“In the fall, we gathered 30,300 pounds of food,” said J.C. Aponte, junior from Clarksville, Tenn. “We wanted to continue to impact our community and the surrounding communities. The potato drop is the perfect opportunity to continue in the spring.”
The potato drop is an event where a large tractor trailer full of potatoes, around 45,000-50,000 pounds worth, will be delivered from large potato companies.
The potatoes will then be bagged into 10-pound bags. Once the event is finished, the potatoes will be delivered to the food banks in the area. Aponte said this is the first time the fraternity is doing the potato drop but it hopes to make it an annual spring event.
Unlike some of the events that take place on campus, the potato drop does not require special rules or attire.
There is also no fee to attend the event. Along with the brothers of Lambda Chi, students can also jump in and help because the sooner the potatoes are in the bags, the sooner they can be distributed.
“I am really excited for this event,” Aponte said. “I think that this will highly benefit our community and the surrounding ones. Hunger is a large factor that impacts several hundreds of families in western Kentucky and I’m excited that we are doing something to help with the cause.”
The potato drop has received positive feedback from the food banks in the area and is expected to have a good turnout, Aponte said.
Though no potatoes will actually be dropped from high distances, there will be thousands of potatoes, bags for everyone, a good cause and hopefully a lot of sunshine. Aponte said he and his brothers have their fingers crossed.
Whether it is pronounced potato or ‘po-tah-to’, the food banks of Murray and Calloway County will have plenty of potatoes to go around.
Story by Katrina Yarbrough, Staff writer