As the Thanksgiving season ushers in the time for giving, the upcoming weeks will offer students, faculty and staff several opportunities to reach out to the local community. Rider’s Homelessness Awareness program, as well as the Feed the Hungry and Giving Tree Projects, provide outreach to those in need.

Following is a list of activities:

Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, November 12-16

Rider’s Hunger and Homelessness Awareness program will present a “Food Weigh-In” on Monday, November 12 from noon to 1 p.m. in Daly’s Dining Hall. Students will have an opportunity to fill out a survey about how much food they believe is wasted at Daly’s in a given day. Garbage from Daly’s will then be weighed to show how much food is actually wasted.

On Tuesday, November 13, the campus community is invited to make blankets in the Hall of Fame of Student Recreation Center. The blankets will be taken to New York City on Wednesday, November, 14, as part of Rider’s Campus Ministry’s Midnight Run. Before the Midnight Run, students, faculty and staff can volunteer to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at stations in front of Memorial Hall, Daly’s, and the Fine Arts Building on Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Campus volunteers will meet at Gill Chapel at 6:30 p.m. to pack blankets, food and personal care items for those in need before heading off to New York City to hand them out to homeless individuals. Rider participants will return to campus approximately 2 a.m.

Other activities will include:

• A Candlelight Vigil in support of homeless youth on Thursday, November 15, at 7 p.m. in front of Moore Library.
• A “Faces of Homelessness” panel discussion in Sweigart Hall, Room 115 on Thursday, at 7:30 p.m. Local homeless or former homeless individuals will speak of their experiences and answer questions from the audience.
• A “Hunger Arrest” from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Daly’s on Friday, November 16. Members of the University community have an opportunity to be “arrested” need to raise bail money in order to be released. All proceeds will benefit Covenant House in Newark, N.J. For more information, contact Nicole Lermond, co-coordinator of the week’s activities, at ext. 2079.

On Saturday, November 17, all are encouraged to participate in Rider’s “Feed the Hungry” effort from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Trenton. The Rider community will provide approximately 400 pre-Thanksgiving meals for needy families as part of the church’s “Loaves and Fishes gathering. ARAMARK, Rider’s food service, will prepare and donate the meals. Monetary donations are being requested. Checks should be made payable to Rider University Campus Ministry and sent to the Rev. Nancy Schluter, Protestant Chaplain, Campus Ministry. Cash is also accepted.

The annual Giving Tree Project – an opportunity to brighten a child’s day with toys – starts on Friday, November 16 and runs through Friday, December 7. Toys for children at the Mill Hill Child and Family Developmental Center in Trenton may be dropped off at one of Rider’s Giving Trees in the Catholic Campus Ministry Office (CCM) in Gill Chapel, at Emmaus House, the Office of the Association of Commuting Students (ACS), and Westminster Choir College’s Student Government Association (SGA) Office. Rider’s CCM, ACS and Westminster’s SGA sponsor the annual campus-wide project. Everyone is encouraged to take an ornament from one of the three trees and purchase an age appropriate toy for the child whose name appears on the ornament.




This year’s annual Thanksgiving luncheon will be held on Thursday, November 15, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. in the BLC Cavalla Room. “A Reason to Celebrate” is the theme of a celebration filled with food, music, reminders of thankfulness and community fellowship. The date has been changed to the week before Thanksgiving in order so that more members of the campus community may experience this University tradition.

Tickets are available on a first come, first served basis through November 14 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Bart Luedeke Center ticket kiosk and at Daly’s from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on November 13 and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on November 14. They will also be available in the Associate Dean of Students Office in the Student Center at Westminster Choir College from 8:30 a.m. to 5-p.m. on Monday through Friday.

The luncheon is free for students who present a ticket and donate a canned food item. For faculty and staff tickets, there is a suggested donation of $5 per ticket. Checks should be made payable to Campus Ministry. All proceeds from the sale of tickets will be used for charitable community initiatives.

The Center for Multicultural Affairs and Community Service is leading the effort to provide area families in dire need with a Thanksgiving meal, complete with a turkey and trimmings. The distribution of at least 300 baskets is this year’s target goal. The baskets can be dropped off in Cavalla Room of the Bart Luedeke Center on Monday, November 19 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monetary donations will also be accepted so that turkeys and pies may be purchased. Members of student organizations, athletic teams and various campus offices will assemble and deliver the baskets on Tuesday, November 20.

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