UNC fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon Beta Chapter has donated $17,600 of their leftover dues to TABLE, a non-profit that provides hunger relief and nutritional education to children living in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and surrounding communities.
“We started brainstorming ideas of what to do with our dues after classes were cancelled,” Vance Brice, president of UNC's DKE chapter, said. “We wanted to help a charity during these unprecedented times.”
The fraternity also donated all of the food they had left over in their food pantry to the non-profit, DKE Treasurer Chris Vaughan said.
"It was amazing to see how quickly we put the plan into action, even though we’re all apart," Vaughan said. “We have had overwhelming support and we’re glad we can make a difference towards the local community.”
Brice said that Meg Miller, DKE's house mother, has contributed to the organization before, which helped the fraternity decide to donate.
“We figured that went hand-in-hand perfectly, since their whole agenda is working with nutrition, hunger and education services,” Brice said.
Prior to COVID-19, TABLE fed 720 kids every week, Suzanne Tormollen, director of community relations, said.
The non-profit typically distributes bags of food to students at local schools, in addition to running an after-school nutrition education program.
“Now with COVID-19, things are different,” Tormollen said. “Now, we deliver door-to-door to these children’s homes. We estimate that over the course of these past four weeks, we have donated 24,000 meals.”
