by Mary Rupert
Students at Kansas City Kansas Community College have been volunteering at the community food giveaways held this month at the KCKCC-TEC, 6565 State Ave. One is scheduled for today.
Andrica Wilcoxen, outreach and prevention coordinator at KCKCC, said 400 families were served at the food giveaway held at the site earlier this month. There was a one-hour wait in line at that event.
Some of the recipients of the free food are KCKCC students, and there are also a lot of student volunteers from the college.
Wilcoxen said many students want to give back to the effort, and are volunteering their time.
Among the KCKCC students who have been volunteering were members of the soccer team, the girls basketball team, students in the psychology classes who have a service component in their classes, and the honors student group at the college.
“I’m pretty proud to see our students giving and not just receiving,” Wilcoxen said.
The food giveaway is scheduled at 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 20, at 65th and State in Kansas City, Kan. It is free and open to the public. Persons are encouraged to arrive early; there might be a wait at the site.
Those attending will receive free groceries on a first-come, first-served basis, and the amount of groceries is based on the number of people in the family. There are no income restrictions. The program is sponsored by Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas and Harvesters food bank, with KCKCC a partner in the effort.
Fresh fruits and fresh vegetables are among the groceries that are given away.