WC Students in Free Enterprise Launch Kent County’s Biggest-Ever Food Drive

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The Washington College chapter of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) has launched what it hopes will be the biggest food drive in Kent County’s history. Organizers of the “Let’s Can Hunger” drive have set a goal of collecting at least 5,000 cans (about 5,000 pounds) of food for the Kent County Community Food Pantry.

The food drive, which will continue through April 11, will involve students, faculty and local businesses. Each Washington College class has a goal of 500 cans of food, and faculty members are being challenged to collect another 1,000 cans. Professor Susan Vowels, the advisor for the College SIFE chapter, says an important part of the Let’s Can Hunger campaign, which is sponsored by SIFE donor company Campbell’s Soup, is to spread awareness of the growing number of people facing food insecurity on a regular basis.

Christian Tateo, a Washington College sophomore who is the project leader for the food drive, says signs showing goal thermometers will be posted in Hodson Hall to track how each class and the faculty are doing. “We will be delivering food to the Food Pantry each week, and the Food Pantry will weigh the food and tell me how we are doing,” says Tateo. Students will be reaching out to local businesses, too, offering promotion on campus in exchange for their donations of cash or canned goods.

Jim Fouss, chairman of the Food Pantry, says the students’ efforts will make a tremendous difference to struggling Kent County families. “Increases in gasoline and utility costs have really strained families, and the number of persons that we service continues to increase,” he notes.

For more information on the Let’s Can Hunger food drive and how to help the Washington College students reach their goal, email Christian Tateo at ctateo2@washcoll.edu.

"Empty Bowls" Event to Benefit Food Pantry

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The 2nd Annual Empty Bowls Project, a benefit for the Kent County Food Bank, will offer a simple meal of bread and soup served in hand-made bowls. The event will take place Thursday, March 29, 2012 in the Underwood Lobby of the Gibson Center for the Arts on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. Doors open at 5 p.m., and the program starts at 5:30 p.m.

The soup will be served in hand-made bowls created by local potters, community members and Washington College students. The bowls are unique keepsakes that guests can take home as a reminder that there are “empty bowls” everywhere.

Against the Grain, a Chestertown bakery-café, is donating a variety of breads for the dinner.

Tickets at $20 per adult and $10 for students and children must be purchased in advance; no tickets will be sold at the door. Last year’s event sold out, so reserve your tickets early.

Organizers of the benefit include the Washington College Service Council and Office of Student Development, the non-profit Artworks art center, and Against the Grain. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 410-778-7752 or e-mail student_affairs@washcoll.edu.

Photo: Taylor Kelty shows off her bowl of choice at the 2011 Empty Bowls fundraising dinner at Washington College.

Kresge Foundation Issues $750,000 Challenge Grant For New Washington College Science Center

Chestertown, MD, April 8, 2004 — The Kresge Foundation of Troy, Michigan, has awarded Washington College a challenge grant of $750,000 for its new 45,000-square-foot Science Center, currently under construction. The funds are contingent upon the College raising $2.8 million to support funding for the project by January 1, 2005.

“The grant from The Kresge Foundation represents a major endorsement of the College,” said Jack S. Griswold, chair of the College's Board of Visitors and Governors. “The Kresge Foundation scrupulously examines all aspects of an institution while considering a proposal. Its grant to the College is a ‘Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval' of which we are very proud.”

“This vote of confidence from The Kresge Foundation is tangible evidence that the momentum of our highly successful Campaign for Washington's College is continuing,” said Thomas H. Gale, chair of the Development Committee of the Board of Visitors and Governors.

“Now the challenge for all of us is to build on the momentum of that magnificent effort with this new campaign for the Science Center,” added Gale.

The Campaign for Washington's College, which ended on December 31, 2003, raised $103.4 million—the largest capital campaign in the College's 222-year history and the single largest ever conducted by a Maryland undergraduate college. Funds raised are supporting a range of initiatives, from new faculty chairs, professorships, and academic programs, to scholarships, technology enhancements, new academic research and outreach centers, and new facilities such as the Science Center, which will double the size of Washington College's science teaching and research complex.

Designed to provide a lab-rich environment for supporting new and evolving models for teaching the sciences to undergraduates, the $23-million Science Center will have state-of-the-art teaching and research laboratories for biology, chemistry, environmental studies, physics, psychology, and math and computer science, as well as a vivarium to support psychological research and greenhouse on the top story.

Classrooms in the Science Center will follow a new trend in science facilities: small-group instruction rooms equipped with mobile “white boards.” A three-story glass atrium—to be named in honor of the late Washington College president, chemistry professor and alumnus Joseph McLain, Class of 1937—will connect the Center with the existing Dunning-Decker Science Complex.

The Kresge Foundation—an independent, private foundation unaffiliated with any corporation or organization—was created in 1924 by Sebastian S. Kresge “to promote the well-being of mankind.” In 2003, the Foundation awarded grants totaling more than $105 million to 145 charitable and nonprofit organizations operating in the areas of higher education, health and long-term care, arts and humanities, human services, science and the environment, and public affairs.