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Hunger Cleanup raises $6,000

WISPIRG fundraiser money to aid in education, rental assistance, poverty research

Students from Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group’s Hunger and Homelessness Campaign volunteered across Madison Saturday, raising nearly $6,000 in the process.

“Today was really successful,” said campaign coordinator and University of Wisconsin sophomore Rashi Mangalick. “We had a good number of volunteers, we raised a ton of money and everyone seemed to enjoy the service that they did.”

The campaign, part of the nationwide Hunger Cleanup aimed at fighting homelessness, raised a total of $5,861.71 as of Sunday morning.

Although the amount surpasses the original earnings goal of $5,000, WISPIRG Campus Organizer Samantha Gibb said the positive results have prompted the group to set an increased goal of $6,500 for Thursday.

Half of the amount raised will go to the Road Home, a local organization that provides emergency rental assistance for families in danger of losing their homes. According to Gibb, funds from the Hunger Cleanup will pay one month’s emergency rent for about 15 families.

The remaining funds will be allocated to national poverty research and education efforts, educational support for girls in Zimbabwe and aiding refugees in Darfur, Sudan.

“Everyone obviously had their own individual great experiences throughout the day … but the biggest thing that I think we were able to help do today and this whole semester was raise tons and tons of money that’s going to help [continuously] in the local and greater community,” Gibb said.

Saturday’s event consisted of 65 volunteers spread across six different sites for a day of volunteering. Activities ranged from stocking a food pantry to helping different organizations fundraise.

Campaign volunteer and UW freshman Sharmila Ghosh spent the day at St. Vincent de Paul’s food pantry where she said permanent volunteers really took notice of the students’ presence.

“They were really appreciative and it was cool because we were working with people who obviously did this a lot,” Ghosh said. “We didn’t really know what we were doing, but they didn’t mind; they were just really happy to have us there.”

This year marked the 25th anniversary of the national event and Mangalick said UW has been competing for at least 15 years.

She said the Hunger and Homelessness Campaign participates in small day-long events throughout the semester such as the UW Hunger Cleanup, but in the end their emphasis is on research and education.

“We wanted to focus on long-term solutions to poverty, because we can throw these events and fundraise and stuff, but the actual change will come from institutional change; working with policy and decision makers to actually make institutional change with food distribution and money allocation …” Mangalick said.

Mangalick added she believes it is more effective for events like the Hunger Cleanup to target one big project.

“Because we’re fundraising so much, we want to target one big project the local agency might need or might want to fund but not necessarily have the funds to do that,” Mangalick said.