Pictured Above (From left to right top row): OLLI Members Charlie and Rita Daniels, and OLLI Director Josh Raney accompanied by student volunteers, Amelia McLauchlan and Alexis Skinner. Dec. 7, 2017 By: Shelby Dye
“This pantry allows us to see a different form of hunger and to reshape our ideas about hunger and about pantries.” – Liz Johnson, Pantry Chair
During October and November of this year, OLLI members were hard at work gathering non-perishable food items, which were donated to the Jane B. Gearheart Full Circle Food Pantry last Thursday, Nov. 30 for this month’s act of OLLI-Anthropy.
Liz Johnson, Pantry Chair, explained that the Pantry was started in 2011 by a University of Arkansas student who noticed several of her peers taking food from the campus dining halls. “Our first week we served 11 people, and now we are serving over 350 people a week,” Johnson said.
Johnson reminded OLLI volunteers that there isn’t just one face associated with hunger. “Many people have an idea of what hunger looks like, the homeless person or the starving child we see on TV. But hunger and malnutrition are not defined by one picture or one idea. Many people have a hard time picturing someone who struggles with having enough to eat as someone who also works forty hours a week and looks like me or you. This pantry allows us to see a different form of hunger and to reshape our ideas about hunger and about pantries,” Johnson said when asked about the Pantry and the community members it serves.
OLLI-Anthropy is an effort on behalf of The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute to give back to the community that supports us through member driven donations and volunteer efforts. For the month of December, OLLI will be working with the Farmington community to collect items for the Farmington Cardinal Tree, sponsored by the Farmington School District. Donations for the tree will be accepted at Drake Airfield until Dec. 11. Donations will be given to students, or cardinals, in need.
For more information on OLLI-Anthropy please follow the Link!
