Students from Central Magnet School’s Beta Club presented record one-time donations of nonperishable food and money to the MTSU Student Food Pantry last Thursday, following a recent food drive.
In one week, Central students collected 7,000-plus cans of food and raised $2,600 to help the pantry restock its shelves.
MTSU staff brought a truck to pick up the donations from the grade 6-12 magnet school, which is operated by Rutherford County Schools and located on East Main Street, a few blocks west of the MTSU campus.
Becca Seul, student pantry founder and a coordinator at MT One Stop, said Central’s donation is quite timely. The pantry, which is located inside MT One Stop on the second floor of the Student Services and Admissions Center, “has been hit hard with visitors” following MTSU’s holiday break and return of students.
“We’ve seen close to 100 students already since we reopened,” Seul said. “The donation from CMS is the largest one-time donation in our history! These canned goods will help keep us stocked for quite some time. In addition, the monetary donation is also the largest of its kind so far by any one group.”
Erin Alvarado, librarian and media specialist at Central and a co-sponsor of the Beta Club, said a mother of one of the Central students suggested the MTSU pantry as a community service project.
“It’s really inspiring. It’s great to have the kind of students that just want to serve. They’re really interested in helping other people,” Alvarado said. “It was kind of overwhelming to see all of the donations and the amount of cans that were collected.”
Jimmy Hart contributed to this report.
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