• Each month 51,000 Rhode Islanders seek food assistance
• Nearly half of them are children
• The number of hungry and food insecure people in our community is increasing
  Source: RI Food Bank

Brown Dining has a system in place for regular donations of leftovers, but we are excited to step up our committment to the fight against local hunger. We know we are in a unique position when each day we process and serve over 4,000 meals. Our goal is to play an active role in helping all of Rhode Island to become more food-secure. Each week we donate appropriate leftover foods to The Rhode Island Food Bank, St. Elmo's Fire and to Food Not Bombs. We have participated in Campus Hunger Forums for many years and are proud co-organizers of Brown's Annual Holiday Food Drive.

We are exploring ways to further encourage student involvement through FlexPoint donations and helping with food preparation and serving at local soup kitchens. In addition, we are discussing ways that Brown Dining chefs and students could facilitate job skills trainings at the soup kitchens.

• Annual Holiday Food Drive
  • Between Thanksgiving and the end of the semester, you can drop off non-perishable food items in boxes by the entrance to Brown Dining eateries, the Brown Bookstore, the Post Office in Faunce, Graphic Services and Conference Services Offices. Call 863-3168 for more information.
• Make a monetary donations. Checks can be sent via campus mail to: R.I. Community Food Bank, c/o Brown Bookstore, Box 1878, Providence, RI 02912
• Volunteer during the Holiday Food Drive. We need help spreading the word, collecting, sorting and transporting foods, rallying enthusiasm, gathering monetary donations for the Food Bank and cleaning up afterwards. E-mail Louella Hill for more details.
• Start a non-holiday food drive! The hungry in our community are hungry year-round – especially in the non-holiday season when people aren't making donations. Design a campaign for gathering food during Passover, Valentine's, Homecoming, Easter, your birthday... whenever!
• Gather non-perishable food from your dorm or house at the end of Fall (December 1st to 20th) and Spring semesters (May 10th to May 20th). Enormous amounts of food are wasted when students leave town in a hurry. Help organize volunteers to get this food to the mouths that need it most.

• Support local farms. It may not seem obvious, but the health of local farms tends to have a huge impact on local hunger. Small, diversified farms can provide nearby food pantries with supplies of fresh, quality vegetables and fruits. Areas that have lost their farming infrastructure have also lost access to nutritious foods for those most in need. In our neighborhoods and around the world, as local farms are lost to single-crop industrial operations, the fresh grade B produce that once filled nearby food pantries now rots in faraway fields.
• Help glean and transport surplus crops from local farms to local food kitchens. Each fall, more food is grown than can get picked. Thousands of pounds of tomatoes can rot in the fields. Thousands of pounds of apples can fall from the trees and never make it to local mouths. You can help reduce food waste and fight hunger by organizing a work crew to pick and transport these foods. Work crews should be five or more people and must provide their own transportation and boxes for transport. E-mail Louella Hill for more details.
• Volunteer at Rhode Island Community Farm, a farm which grows fresh foods specifically for the Rhode Island Food Bank. The R.I. Community Farm needs help with publicity, outreach, transportation, program design, volunteer coordination and more. Contact Steve Connors, director. The R.I. Community Farm also accepts monetary donations.

• Volunteer at one of our partner soup kitchens:
  • Mary House (Janice Luongo)
    Ph: 401-274-6286.
    Needs: Web Design, Fundraising help, paper plates, cups, utensils, bottled water, volunteers on M, T, Th and F
  • Oasis House (Joseph Lynch)
    Ph: 401-831-6937
    Needs: Clothing, Performances and Entertainment Groups, Creative Writing Activities, Literacy Programs, Food
  • Pawtucket Soup Kitchen (Ernest Marot)
    Ph: 401-726-4680
    Needs: Chefs, Grant Writers, Laundry Detergent, Volunteers (Give 4 days notice)
  • Amos House (Maggie Meany)
    Ph: 401-272-0220
    Needs: Volunteers for Breakfast and Lunch, Monday, Tuesday and Friday
• Collect supplies (such as personal hygiene products) and deliver them
• Write an editorial for the Brown Daily Herald, The Independent, Inside Brown, Brown Alumni Magazine, The Providence Journal. Speak up about the issue of hunger. Let the people around you know the urgency and the meaningfulness of working to fight hunger both locally and globally.
• Think up your own creative idea! Let us know how we together can better address and end hunger. We are all ears (and all heart).