Kean University’s School of Communication, Media and Journalism Holds Food Drive

By Kennedy Griffin | December 23, 2021

In the true fashion of “the season of giving”, the School of Communication, Media and Journalism here at Kean hosted a food drive contest to see which communication class could collect the most goods for donation.

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The food drive inspired students here at Kean. It occurred Nov. 9 – 24, and drop-off donations were received at CAS 402. Each can or box donated from individual classes will equal one point. Whichever class gains the most points will win free coffee and donuts for their class during finals week as well as “bragging rights”. 

Communication professor and the head of the food drive Gina Gili explained the importance of hosting this event.

 “I wanted to create a food drive contest in order to get as many people as I could to participate. With having just a two-week period to accept donations, what better way to entice the CMJ community than a little bit of healthy competition? We do a lot of work with the Township of Union, so there was no doubt in my mind that they would be the first recipients of our food drive,” Gili said.

Multiples classes and instructors donated all types of nonperishable items. The winning class was Professor Edgley’s Comm 3700 class, winning by just 20 points, while Professor Suzanne Schwab’s classes were also very involved in the effort.

“The students brought in items each day and I kept a log that I reminded them of and they were consistently checking the numbers on social media to see where we stood so we knew how much we needed to win in the last few days,” Edgley said.

 The holiday season is the perfect time to not only spread a little holiday cheer but also to help lessen the burden on families in need. Gili explained that people are in need of help all year long and added that the success of this event could foster future occasions like this as well. 

 “I don’t want to speak too soon on this, but yes, there have already been talks about a spring semester event,” Gili said. 

Gili explained that the students enjoyed the competition and that they have collaborated with their friends from other communication classes to donate more goods. 

“The best part is knowing that our donations are going right back in our community,” Gili said.

This story was updated on February 14, 2022

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