Steph Valenti
Reporter
A food drive hosted by a Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) student in January provided for Tacoma’s Hilltop community, which has been hit by a housing crisis.
First-year student Amariah Whiting initiated the process on her own, reaching out to the university and to local food banks to put on the food drive. The entire process took her about four weeks, from when she first reached out to PLU to when she finally dropped off the donations at a food bank.
She was taking a J-term class that gave her the option to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity or NW Furniture Bank, but her professor informed the class that they weren’t going to directly help the community very much. Whiting learned in class that Hilltop has not only been hit by a housing crisis, but has also been experiencing a food desert. She then offered to host the food drive, so change could happen.
Whiting reserved tables in PLU’s Anderson University Center (AUC) for six days over the span of two weeks. A fellow classmate sat with Whiting and provided support. At first, there weren’t many donations, but as the days progressed, the donations increased.
Donations varied in amount within the six days, but at the end, she ended up with her SUV full of donated food.
The first three days, Whiting sat at her food drive table for three hours. Over the last three days, she increased the time she spent at the table accepting donations.
“It was five hours because I thought we were going to get, like, a lot of donations,” she said. “But we literally got, like, zero. If anything we got donated like four things. Then, Thursday and Friday, it was like, I don’t even know what happened. I just started having people come in with bags and bins of food. It was really crazy. And the support the last two days was so overwhelming.”
When the food drive wrapped up, Whiting had no room in her SUV until she took the donations to the food bank near Hilltop. The food bank was incredibly shocked to see a vehicle stuffed with donations, she said, even though she had reached out to the director a few weeks prior. She feels she succeeded in helping out the Tacoma community and thanks everyone who donated and helped her cause.
Despite the fact that the food drive was part of her J-term class, Whiting does not want it to seem like she needed that to be a reason to do this. She has a long history of helping out the community, especially when it comes to collecting donations throughout high school, and doesn’t plan on stopping.
“I don’t want it to be classified as a class project,” Whiting said. “I just don’t think that you need a reason, like to get credits or whatever, to help out the community.”
Whiting looks forward to conducting another event like the food drive in the future. However, next time she plans to contact more people in the PLU community as resources, reach out to grocery stores, and plan it out during some time other than J-term since the student body is considerably smaller during that time of year.
One of her future plans is coming up soon on March 10, where she will be partnering with PLU’s Residential Hall Association to host another food drive during bowling night.
