Pre-Event Highlight: UNC Battle Park Cleanup & Block Party

From 10am-12pm on April 2nd, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, WILL WORK FOR FOOD-UNC will be hosting the Battle Park Cleanup. More than 20 volunteers are expected to take part in this service project which aims to beautify Battle Park, located on-campus at the University of North Carolina.

"[Battle Park] is a great place for students to run, hike, or just hang out," said WWFF-UNC Co-Chapter Represntative, Ben Vollmer, "This will be the second time we've helped to clean up Battle Park."

Following the service project, students at UNC are invited to attend a Block Party on Amity Court. There, attendees will be treated to food and live music, all intended to raise awareness for the UNC Chapter of WILL WORK FOR FOOD. According to Vollmer, the Block Party was the brainchild of marketing manager, Jayce Walker.

"We've just finished applying for official university recognition, which we should have in the fall, and we wanted to make the student body familiar with WILL WORK FOR FOOD," said Vollmer, "Jayce contacted a number of bands to play and really took the lead on this project."

With the help of their other Chapter Rep, Peter Helvie, as well as everyone else at WWFF-UNC, our folks down in Chapel Hill certainly are on the quick path to success. Great job Tar Heels and good luck this weekend with the Battle Park Cleanup and Block Party!

WILL WORK FOR FOOD is fortunate to have many great chapters all over the country. It seems like every week, another great work effort s is being hosted by WWFF somewhere. If you think you have what it takes to be a great Chapter Rep and come up with your own service events, learn how you can become a Chapter Rep today!

If you want to know every time WILL WORK FOR FOOD posts something new to our blog, email willworkforfoodblog@gmail.com with the subject line "Sign me up."

Event Highlight Update: Top Teams from the HQ Food Drive

The WILL WORK FOR FOOD Headquarters Team's Food Drive (March 11-12) was a through and through success ($6,000 raised and 3012 pounds of food collected). With the final numbers in, we are excited to announce our top teams! First off, Team Delta:

Led by team captain Becca Kendis, Team Delta raised $3,460. We appreciate all of the hard work each and every team put into the Food Drive, but Team Delta particularly blew us away with their unprecedented success with fundraising.
Team Delta was comprised of 10 members of the University of Michigan's Delta Delta Delta chapter. After being informed about WILL WORK FOR FOOD by an academic advisor, Becca attended a WWFF Food Drive mass meeting back in January, where she decided to become a team captain. Utilzing the outreach resources provided to team captains from WWFF, Becca was able to organize Team Delta and get them on track to raise their record sum with support from friends and families.

"We feel very fortunate that our team members' families and friends were incredibly supportive of our efforts and responded so generously," said Becca.

Understanding that not everyone is in a position to donate generously, it was definitely helpful that the members of Team Delta reached out to nearly 100 friends and family asking them to contribute.

One member of Team Delta did an especially outstanding job. In less than 24 hours, Elizabeth Watchowski managed to raise $1,835 from over a dozen different family members and friends that sponsored her! The donations kept rolling in and Elizabeth ended up raising $2,400 from about 25 sponsors. Look for another blog post coming soon about how Elizabeth had so much success.

Another noteworthy performance came from Team KKG. This team, led by Lucy Przybylski, Stephanie Priel, and Jess Lazar, worked its way to raising $1,150. Jess, the designated team captain, mentioned that she had so much success fundraising by simply sending a pre-drafted email from WWFF out to over a dozen family members and friends. It definitely helped that Jess wrote a compelling bio in her WWFF profile and also followed up with an additional personalized email to them all.

"Almost everyone that I emailed donated," Jess said, "I am really lucky to have such generous and supportive people in my life."

And WILL WORK FOR FOOD is lucky to have had such great people working hard to ensure the food drive's success. Becca, Elizabeth, Jess and the rest of our "Workers" that participated in the food drive and got sponsored perfectly demonstrate how big of an impact you can have when you just get involved and ask friends and family to support your work.

We couldn't have pulled off this food drive without our team captains, volunteers, and of course everyone that contributed as a sponsor. We sincerely thank everyone that was involved! We also encourage you all to continue volunteering locally to save children globally!

Want to get involved with WILL WORK FOR FOOD but you don't know how? Stop thinking and dive right in!

If you want to know every time WILL WORK FOR FOOD posts something new to our blog, email willworkforfoodblog@gmail.com with the subject line "Sign me up."

Event Highlight: HQ Team Food Drive

Based in Ann Arbor, MI, the WILL WORK FOR FOOD Headquarters Team works very hard to ensure WWFF spreads itself into high schools and colleges across the nation diligently and successfully. With goal-setting, branding, and consulting services, dozens of (mostly) University of Michigan (UofM) students spend dozens of hours each week ensuring WILL WORK FOR FOOD's success. This past weekend, however, the WWFF-HQ Team practiced what it preaches and hosted a large-scale event at UofM:

The HQ Team Food Drive.

The Food Drive was a two-day event that started on Friday, March 11th. Groups, led by designated and trained team captains, were assigned neighborhoods near the Michigan campus and around Ann Arbor where they flyered and distributed collection bags to nearly 1,000 houses advertising the food dirve. Then, the next day from 12-3pm, volunteers spent their afternoons collecting canned goods left out by residents on their porches. Following the collection, each group returned to campus for a sorting party at which the HQ Team, Team Captains and volunteers gathered to see the impressive amount of food that they gathered.

"It was really inspiring to see so many students who truly wanted to make a difference." ~Levi Barry, WWFF Evaluation Manager

The final weigh-in for collected canned goods came in at a whopping 3,012 lbs. That is heavier than most mid-sized cars! Every pound of that food went to Food Gatherers, an Ann Arbor-based food bank that provides over 10,000 meals a day for those in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County who are in need.

With over 15 groups and over 80 volunteers, this group of dedicated U-M students did the Maize & Blue proud en route to raising over $5,000 (as of 3/14/11; new donations continue to pour in).

Levi Barry, a U-M junior and in his second year as WWFF's Evaluation Manager, was very impressed with the dedication put in by the volunteers and Team Captains, especially considering the timing of the event.

"Because so many of the volunteers' friends were spending this past Friday and Saturday partying in preparation for St. Patricks's Day [this coming Thursday], it was really inspiring to see these students who truly wanted to make a difference dedicate their weekend to making the Food Drive a success."

While a number of Food Drive volunteers have been a part of WILL WORK FOR FOOD's HQ Team for at least a few months, many were participating in their first WWFF event.

"I decided to be a team captain because it seemed like a great opportunity to
get some leadership experience and to help out a worthy cause," freshman Lauren Nieman said, "I think this type of event has a strong future at U-M because it was a great way for college students to get involved in the community while also helping malnourished kids abroad without taking up too much time from their busy schedules."

And with these kinds of endorsement from Michigan underclassmen, it is easy to understand why the future of WILL WORK FOR FOOD has the students at U-M so excited.

"I think it's great that WILL WORK FOR FOOD at Michigan is now practicing what it preaches," said Barry, "I look forward to next year's Food Drive as we work to build upon the success of this year's."

And they will.

Be on the lookout for blog posts this week about top captains and participants from the Food Drive.

There are so many great work efforts that have gone on across America through WILL WORK FOR FOOD, and it's easy to bring WWFF to your school. Don't hesitate, become a WWFF Rep today!

If you want to know every time WILL WORK FOR FOOD posts something new to our blog, email willworkforfoodblog@gmail.com with the subject line "Sign me up."