Foes on the football field, Michigan State University and Stanford University will come together on New Year’s Eve to fight a common enemy: Hunger.
On the day before the two schools meet in the 100th edition of the Rose Bowl, students, alumni and friends of the two universities will help staff an annual service project in the Los Angeles area.
For the third year in a row, participants will assist the Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles’ SOVA Community Food and Resource Program, an organization dedicated to alleviating hunger and poverty in and around Los Angeles.
Volunteers from the universities will gather at 10 a.m. Tuesday to sort and pack food to be ready for distribution to people in need. The event is at the JFS/SOVA Community Food and Resource Center – 6605 Odessa Ave. in Van Nuys, Calif.
"Jewish Family Service wants to thank all the volunteers and staff from Michigan State University and Stanford University for helping us at the 2014 Rose Bowl Service Project,” said Terry B. Friedman, JFS board president. “We are deeply appreciative of their support which allows us to provide food, help and hope to more than 12,000 individuals each month through JFS { SOVA. Whatever the outcome on the field this New Year's Day, both teams are winners to us."
Last year more than 100 students, alums and friends from the two participating schools – Stanford and the University of Wisconsin – participated in the event.
“We are honored to be a part of what has become a New Year’s Eve tradition,” said Denise Maybank, MSU’s vice president for student affairs. “MSU is no stranger to helping feed the hungry. We are home to the nation’s first on-campus student food bank, an organization that distributes more than 50,000 pounds of food annually to MSU students and their families.”
The MSU Student Food Bank recently celebrated its 20th anniversary.
For more information on JFS programs and services, visit www.jfsla.org.