Earlier this year, students groups at the university collaborated to form a coalition to advocate awareness for the hungry and homeless called the UMD Hunger & Homelessness Coalition.
In honor of the National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week, Nov. 10 to Nov. 18, the campus coalition has created its own weeklong series of events to help raise awareness of poverty issues and collect donations of food and clothing for those in need. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, 3.5 million Americans are likely to experience homelessness annually.
Members of the coalition include MaryPIRG, Alpha Phi Omega, Food Recovery Network, The Love Movement, Black Student Union, Beta Psi Omega, Indian Students Association, Hindu Student Council, Hillel, Delta Epsilon Mu and Alpha Chi Sigma.
David Kramer, the Love Movement’s co-president, said one of his goals for the week is for students to realize hunger is not solely a foreign problem.
“We often hear about people in other countries who are struggling to get sufficient food,” he wrote in an email. “But it’s also happening right in our backyard, and there is something we can do about it.”
To launch the event on Monday, three guest speakers from the National Coalition for the Homeless visited the campus to share their experiences with homelessness.
“I was treated like I wasn’t even human,” said one of the speakers, Andre Colter. “People would stare past me as if I didn’t exist. Do you know what it feels like to be treated lesser than human?”
The speakers of the panel revealed many homeless individuals were victims of bad timing and an inability to secure enough money to afford basic necessities.
Parimala Sharma, a sophomore animal science major and Alpha Phi Omega member, said the speaker panel was inspiring and had divulged into the unknown cruelty stereotyping had on homeless individuals.
“I learned that looks can be deceiving and that a little bit of reaching out and simple compassionate gestures and communication goes a long way,” she said.
The week has consisted of a flag football tournament sponsored by the Black Student Union, a shelter visit with The Love Movement, a fundraising election watch party, and charity meal fundraiser event headed by Alpha Phi Omega. The initiative will culminate with can food drives, a benefit concert and a trip to a homeless shelter for children.
James Booth, coordinator for the Hunger and Homelessness Coalition, said the week has been more successful than the awareness week last year due to better marketing and having more student involvement.
“There are a lot of people at this university and most of us do service in one way or another. [However], if all these people got together to do something positive, then we could do so much more good than we do singularly,” he said.
