Sami Nukta

SGA collected numerous canned food donations specifically for the Arlington Food Assistance Center, contributing to a Thanksgiving initiative. To gather support for the event and get the word around, SGA made Ion posts, and several social media posts. “[To advertise the food drive], We made TikTok [posts], Instagram posts, and we had a Facebook post as well,” Ake said.

From Nov. 15 through Nov. 20, the Student Government Association (SGA) held a food drive in the Nobel Commons for Thanksgiving. A table was set up for students to drop off food to be donated.

Food donations were given to the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC), which is a service that accepts food from drives and distributes it to people in need. Foods that were accepted included canned goods (such as tuna, soups, and vegetables), peanut butter (in plastic tubs), and cereal. Other items they accepted included sugar, flour, cooking oil, and coffee. 

The food drive, organized by the SGA Director of Policy, Cameron Ake, was meant to allow students to help put food out on the table for those who needed it most this Thanksgiving. 

“Thanksgiving has a sense of giving back to the community, providing what’s best for others, and helping out with other people in a way that represents how people have given back to us,” Ake said.

There were some challenges that came with organizing a food drive. Most notably for SGA, the strict time limit that came with the short week before Thanksgiving.

“We overestimated [the amount of food], but that was because of the overall timing and constraints.” said Ake. “Because of the week’s structure, it was difficult to create a timeframe that was accessible to students.”

SGA has already brainstormed on how to improve the food drive for next year, specifically with planning the drive quicker to allow students more time to donate.

“I would say that streamlining the planning with a quicker pace would have been useful [to the success of the drive].