March 31, 2003

Food Drive To Benefit Army Personnel, Families

The Department of Transportation Services is organizing a collection of non-perishable food items for the United Service Organizations (USO) of the Pioneer Valley.

The USO of the Pioneer Valley provides food and other support services to military personnel and their families in Massachusetts and Connecticut. More information on what the USO does for U.S. troops and their families is available at www.uso.org.

The primary collection points are the UConn buses and accessible vans on the Storrs campus. The vehicles will have large trash bags for donated food items on the hook behind the driver's seat. As the bags fill up, the drivers will deliver the food to the transportation services office.

In addition, University Mail Services will pick up food at offices on campus when doing the mail rounds. There will also be collection boxes in the purchasing, transportation services, and mail services offices.

Individuals or departments willing to have a collection box should contact Janet Freniere, manager of transportation services, as soon as possible: janet.freniere@uconn.edu or 860.486.4804. Any box may be used. The box should be marked "USO Food Drive."

People at other campuses of the University are encouraged to join in the food drive, and should call Freniere to discuss how to coordinate the arrangements.

"Regardless of how you might feel about the war itself, our troops and their families need your help," says Freniere. "Many of our very courageous troops over in Iraq are reservists who took huge pay cuts when being called to active duty. Families that could previously shop in Nordstrom's are now on food stamps. Please help us help them."

Some ideas for non-perishable food are: crackers, rice, canned vegetables and fruit, dry and canned soups, cookies, and hard candy.

The food drive will run through April 25, with the goods delivered to the USO the weekend of April 26-27. There may be additional deliveries before that time, depending on the volume collected.