Student Athletes Help Rise Against Hunger

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – On Saturday, various members of the student-athlete community joined forces with nearly 500 other volunteers at Rise Against Hunger in the Jared L. Cohon University Center’s Wiegand Gym to help end global hunger by 2030. In just two hours, the group packaged approximately 200,000 dehydrated meals for distribution around the world thank to partners, Kraft Heinz Foundation and Rise Against Hunger.

Organized by the Office of Student Leadership, Involvement and Civic Engagement (SLICE), the event is in its fourth year of making a global difference.

Sophomore women’s tennis athlete Melissa Strome returned to the event for the second year stating, “I think it is important to be involved in civic engagement, especially at CMU, because we spend so much time worrying about our own future that we often forget the struggles other people, including our classmates, go through. This two-hour event was able to change thousands of lives and it was meaningful to have a role in preparing the event and participating in it.”

Strome took notice of her fellow athletes in attendance. “It was so nice to see so many new faces at Rise Against Hunger! I really enjoyed seeing the teams there together. It’s a bonding experience and may spark an interest in becoming more involved with civic engagement on campus.”

Strome continued with, “Civic engagement can be a multitude of things. We don’t all have time to go into the community and perform direct service, but we can all be civically engaged. This includes voting, philanthropy, and being socially responsible. I have been engaged in direct service since I was young and learning more about how to be engaged in different ways is interesting and important.”