Residents reach out with annual project

January 30, 2012 by Azalee Maslow 

RAs asked leaders for more service opportunities, now preserve tradition with Three Square charity

Each year UNLV Resident Assistants give back to the community to fight hunger in Southern Nevada and to build community. mong staff members.

Service endeavors became a tradition in January 2010, said Alli Myers St. John, program coordinator for Residential Education, who organizes the service project for the resident assistants each year.

UNLV resident assistants have a service project included in their training because feedback from former RAs indicated that they would enjoy this the projects.

RAs first assisted at Three Square Food Bank and because they enjoyed it they have returned there for their yearly service project.
Service projects go hand in hand with the RAs’ role as community builders, St. John said.

Three Square Food Bank also represents a sense of community because the organization partners with many other organizations to help end hunger in Southern Nevada.

The RA’s spirit of volunteerism is important to the charity, too.

“[Three Square Food Bank] relies heavily on volunteer work,” St. John said. “If they could not count on volunteers they could not review the food [in order to be able to give it safely to those who need it].”

St. John said that there are many different volunteer opportunities at Three Square Food Bank and this allows the Resident Assistants to get “a different experience each time.”

Last year, the RAs helped out by putting potatoes into smaller packaging and also by checking the potatoes and throwing out bad ones, St. John said.

This year, the RAs helped out by participating in the Backpacks for Kids project. Volunteers pack bags to send home with Clark County School District students on weekends to aid those who may not have enough food at home.

The resident assistants helped stuff more than 1,600 bags that are then given to teachers to discreetly put into students bags who seem to need the food.

“The food is picked by nutritionist in order to meet the children’s daily vitamin needs,” St. John said.

The project provided food like cereal, granola bars, peanut butter crackers, fruit snacks, canned fruit and bottles of juice.

St. John said that because it is unknown whether some of the children are homeless, none of the food is perishable.

The RAs’ projects contribute to building UNLV’s image in the community, said Jennifer Gray, assistant director of Housing Administration.
“[These service projects] put UNLV’s name out there in a good way,” she said.

UNLV has 33 RAs — one for each occupied floor of a residence hall. They are all undergraduate students.

“I am very proud of the staff,” St. John said. “They get excited and I like the fact that they take a personal investment in volunteering here and are able to use food that may not of been used [if it weren't for their help].”

Contact Azalee Maslow at azalee.maslow.ry@gmail.com.