Limestone College

The Gaffney Ledger

 Sleep deprivation to accomplish a community service project did little to dampen the ambition of Limestone College students when it came time to plan an encore for new students this month.

Limestone College students and faculty members stayed awake until 2 a.m. last August to complete a singleday service project, putting together 62,034 packages of rice, vegetables and vitamins to provide nutritious meal ingredients for the Stop Hunger Now international hunger relief organization.

This year, 270 Limestone College freshmen will spend one of their first days on campus helping package ingredients for 100,000 meals.

Students will put together the rice, vegetable and vitamin packages in Timken Gym in a kickoff event for the college's second year of Limestone CARES community service group. The food packages will be distributed by the Stop Hunger Now hunger relief organization, which provides food assistance programs at schools and orphanages in developing countries around the world.

The community service project will be held just before classes start Aug. 22.

Limestone College junior Donta Ingram said the Stop Hunger Now service project is a natural part of efforts to get college students involved in the community.

"Our community service projects completely surpassed our expectations last year so we wanted to set the bar even higher," Ingram said. "Limestone College is working with the Gaffney Rotary Club and middle schools to put together ingredients for 100,000 meal packages over a 2-day period. It is a great challenge since we don't have as many students as major universities. We are confident we can accomplish this goal with the help of our school and community groups."

Limestone College plans to send teams of students into the community to help with service projects Aug. 21- 23, chaplain Ron Singleton said.