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Students at the University of Pennsylvania used their unused meal swipes to help the university's surrounding community by donating them to the campus' Swipe Out Hunger Campaign.
As reported by UPenn's official website, the university presented a check for $7,291.25 to local hunger relief organization Philabundance. The funds were gathered from the some 900 Penn students that participated in the campaign, which was able to amass a total of 1,535 unused meal swipes during its set donation period.
The campaign completed its pilot run this past spring semester, and a partnership with Penn Dining and university's food service provider Bon Appetit made is possible for students to donate their unused meal swipes. In fact, Bon Appetit gave Philabundance $4.75 for every unused meal swipe donated by UPenn students.
The university specified two donation days, March 25 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and April 28 from 6-8 p.m., during which students could could donate up to two meal swipes each.
UPenn sophomores Jessie Abrams and Liza Lansing are credited with starting the Penn chapter of Swipe Out Hunger last fall, and the support for the program has been unexpectedly positive. “On the first donation day we had hoped for 500 swipes donated and got 900, and on the second donation day — which was only two hours — we got more than 500 swipes.”
UPenn now joins other similar initiatives in providing a great service to the larger university community. The Swipe Out Hunger campaign has garnered significant support from the university and its students and hopes to expand program in the future and perhaps even spreading the network to other universities.
