NMCC groups coordinate competitive campus-wide food drive for charities

    PRESQUE ISLE – Students, faculty and staff at Northern Maine Community College are taking each other on in a unique campus-wide challenge designed to stock the food pantries at two Aroostook County charities.     A two-day food drive coordinated by the Early College for ME program, which is housed on the Presque Isle campus, and the NMCC Early Childhood Education Club will take place Dec. 11-12 from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. On both days, students from the two organizations will set up in the Christie lobby at five different tables, each representing a different unit or academic department on the campus.
    The challenge: which group will collect the largest number of non-perishable food items over the two days and claim the bragging rights that go with the honor.
    “We will count the pieces each department has each day and see which was the most generous,” said Ruth White, Early College for ME regional director. “I know it is tough for many right now, but there are always those worse off than ourselves. I am looking to the campus to come together in this unique challenge as a caring community to, in some small way, help others in our neighborhood.”
    Specifically, the food drive challenge will benefit Presque Isle-based Martha and Mary’s Kitchen and Homeless Services of Aroostook. The five teams competing in the challenge are student and faculty groups representing each of the college’s four academic departments: arts and sciences, business technology, nursing and allied health, and trade and technical occupations, as well as a final group comprised of NMCC staff members.
    “We are asking each instructor to encourage their students to bring in non-perishable food items to the lobby on both Dec. 11 and 12. We also encourage alumni, businesses and community friends to join in. Folks from off campus can choose which table to drop off their items,” said White.
    “Perhaps they want to support the department they graduated from, or, as a local employer, show support for a particular program on campus that has turned out graduates that have become an important asset to their business or community.”