As sophomore Chloe Reed and her friends ate at Hoover one November morning, she could not help but wonder how many meal swipes were going down the drain.
Four months later, Reed is now in the midst of an effort to feed Greencastle’s homeless community. Her initiative, “Swipes for the Homeless,” uses extra student meal swipes to put together boxed meals for residents living at Beyond Homeless shelter.
“They waste a lot of food here at Hoover, and we always have extra swipes,” Reed said, explaining her initial thought process. “My main goal is to get enough boxes to last throughout the week and eventually just [become] a continuous project.”
Since early February, Reed and her friends have waited outside Hoover every Thursday, encouraging students to donate their extra swipes. Last week, Reed used the swipes to put together eight extra meals, a number she expects to grow as she continues to spread awareness through the initiative’s Facebook page.
Although “Swipes for the Homeless” is still in its early stages, Beyond Homeless’ Executive Director Michelle Boller has already seen the initiative’s impact.
“It’s just kind of an eye-opener, especially for students who come from a higher-end background, to see what their waste does for these people,” Boller said. “There’s been a lot of focus on poverty in this area, and I feel like the community in general is becoming more aware of it. A lot of people are starting to act.”
The majority of Beyond Homeless’ residents have to bring food to their jobs; Reed’s prepared and well-balanced meals have proven to be a better alternative to the stored foods Beyond Homeless keeps in their pantry.
“When people donate, they think of canned foods. Well, certainly a woman’s not going into a factory with a can of green beans for lunch,” Boller said.
Reed makes sure to add a healthy amount of vegetables, grains and meats to give residents what she calls a “full meal.”
But while Beyond Homeless has put the meals to good use, the issue of excess meal swipes still remains on campus. DePauw Dining declined to disclose the exact number of meal swipes. However, Reed and her friend, sophomore Emma Ruano, still have their suspicions given what they have overheard from other students.
“There are first-years and sophomores who have all these extra swipes and they go to Hoover like, ‘Oh, we have extra swipes, I don’t know what to do,’” Ruano said.
Ruano implores students not to waste. “Come give them to us, come donate food and help out the people who need it,” Ruano said.
Because most of DePauw’s Greek student body eats in their respective fraternities and sororities, the 630 DePauw first-year students take up a large portion of the students using the Resident Hall Meal Plans. First-years have the choice of either using 14 or 18 swipes per week.
“I can’t think of a single week this year that I have used all 14 of my meal swipes,” said first-year Zosha Roberson, who has an average of five swipes left over each week. “It pains me to see them go to waste at the end of the week.”
Students interested in donating swipes can find Reed outside Hoover’s doors tomorrow between 5-5:30 p.m.
“This is something that’s fairly easy (to do) but makes a huge impact on the homeless community in this Greencastle area,” said Reed. “I think we have the privilege to be able to help them, and we should definitely use that privilege to help them.”