UNC groups put the 'giving' in Thanksgiving

Whether it’s the turkey in the oven, the game on TV or the family gathered around the table that defines Thanksgiving for you, this is a time to be thankful for what you have.

Carolina Dining Services wanted to serve UNC students, as well as the Chapel Hill community, by hosting the second annual Ramsgiving on Nov. 17.

CDS partnered with Brown Bag Ministry, an organization that helps to provide food to the hungry in the Triangle, for the event.

With the help of over 700 students, over 1,000 brown bag meals were made and approximately 800 were sent to Durham Rescue Mission.

The other bags were sent to various places throughout the community.

Brittany Cook, marketing manager for CDS, said they wanted to do more than just serve food to students with Ramsgiving by serving people outside the campus community.

“The student response was amazing,” Cook said. “Everyone wanted to participate.”

Cook said sending out so much food to people outside UNC was a new and rewarding experience.

“I’ve been in the business for over 10 years, and I’ve never done anything like this before,” she said.

At Ramsgiving, there were also different organizations represented in the lobby area that offered ways for students to get involved locally.

One of them was TABLE, a backpack program established in 2008 that aims to provide healthy food to hungry kids in Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

Typically, almost 400 kids receive a bag of food from TABLE every Thursday.

But this week, in honor of Thanksgiving, they’re giving two extra bags to each kid.

Volunteering, hosting a food drive and donating food are all ways that students are able to be a part of TABLE, said Ashton Tippins, the executive director for TABLE.

“My experience and time with TABLE has made me more aware of the need in our community, and the different stories and perspectives that people have when they are faced with hunger,” she said.

There are also opportunities for students to get involved with organizations seeking to make a difference on campus.

D’Angelo Gatewood, a junior from Wadesboro, NC, is the vice chairperson of finances for Carolina Cupboard, an on-campus food pantry that provides food to students in need.

With Thanksgiving approaching, Gatewood said Carolina Cupboard is going to have meal packages prepared for students who may not have any food during Thanksgiving break.

“We want to make sure that people do know that food insecurity does exist, even here at UNC,” he said.

Gatewood said he wants other students and organizations to get involved to help raise more awareness about food insecurity.

“You can’t save the whole world or even save the whole town, but you learn to enjoy the fact that you can service five people,” he said.

Gatewood isn’t the only one who wants to shine a light on food insecurity issues in the Chapel Hill area.

Katie Nuccio, co-founder and president of Food Recovery Network, said she was relatively unaware of how serious food insecurity was before starting the organization, which gathers leftovers from campus eateries and takes them to two facilities for people who are homeless — Community House and HomeStart.

“It was very eye opening to see the kind of food waste that we have in our society,” she said.

Open your eyes and look for ways to give back to the community this Thanksgiving, whether it’s by volunteering with an organization on campus or in the local community — there is always a place and need for you to serve.

@JordanKatlyn97

swerve@dailytarheel.com