By Conny Chavez; April 27, 2021
CPP’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee achieved its $500 goal during its virtual food drive held from April 12 to April 18 with all proceeds directly donated to the Poly Pantry.
CPP’s SAAC participated in the annual CCAA conference-wide food drive. Typically, SAAC devotes an entire week to collect canned foods and other preservable goods to donate to local nonprofit organizations; however, this year, the committee resorted to virtual monetary donations following CCAA recommendations.
“It was completely different; usually the food drive is super competitive in the Athletic Department because more people are involved,” said Nia Vance, women’s track and field senior hurdler and jumper and president of SAAC. “We do competitions to see what team can bring in more cans and dry goods. Yes, we met our goal of $500, but the competitiveness and the role that student-athletes play in it wasn’t really there.”
SAAC is an on-campus group composed of 17 CPP student-athletes who volunteer to represent their teams and fellow peers in a number of philanthropic programs. Student-athletes are often recommended by their coaches to join SAAC to gain leadership skills as well as valuable experiences in community service.
Since 2011, SAAC has sponsored the annual food drive, traditionally in February. The CCAA created the annual food drive to help raise awareness among student-athletes and help combat hunger in surrounding areas of the CCAA conference schools.
Each of the 12 schools that are active participants in the CCAA conference can sponsor an annual food drive and decide where to donate the proceeds.
According to Feeding America, one in nine people in the United States struggle with hunger. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment and other financial struggles, there were 42 million people at risk of hunger in 2021, according to Feeding America.
“Every year it is so important, especially this year, making sure that your local and on-campus community and fellow students are taken care of and that they know they have resources available to them,” said Sarah Macias, facilities and events coordinator for the Athletic Department.
Despite new challenges, SAAC desired to make the 2021 food drive as simple as possible to allow everyone inside and outside of the CPP community to participate via CPP’s online donation platform, Crowdfund.
SAAC takes pride in its annual food drive and community service.
“The annual SAAC food drive is important to SAAC because we are focused on community engagement as well as how to support our fellow Broncos and Bronco athletes,” said Emma Hoferer, women’s cross country freshman and SAAC treasurer. “People should consider donating because it is a way to give back and help people right next to us – our classmates and even teammates.”
To help SAAC’s initiative, donate to the Poly Pantry by visiting https://www.cpp.edu/basicneeds/food-resources/poly-pantry.shtml
Feature image courtesy of Sharon Wu, the Poly Post.
