UA’s Swipe Away Hunger Provides Holiday Meals

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A University of Alabama student-run program and Bama Dining are prepared to deliver 500 Thanksgiving meals to an area soup kitchen Wednesday, Nov. 23.

The program, called Swipe Away Hunger, collected unused guest passes from more than 500 UA students at dining halls. Students essentially “swiped” a meal. Bama Dining is taking funds allotted from these swipes to provide more than 500 meals to people served by the East Tuscaloosa Community Soup Bowl.

The menu this year will consist of baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, fresh-baked dinner rolls and cupcakes.

“Swipe Away Hunger allows the Bama Dining staff to get involved using their talent – preparing meals,” said Sharon Mack, director of Residential Food Service. “This year we are elated to prepare the 500 meals. We look forward to this each and every year.”

UA student volunteers worked from Nov. 1 to 14 to collect “swipes” from students at UA dining halls. Students handed out fliers and talked to students personally to ask them to contribute a guest meal off their dining plans for the effort.

“The number of swipes we collect equals how many meals Bama Dining will provide,” said Claire Sielaff, a mechanical engineering student from Chandler, Arizona, who is leading the program in 2016. “The swipes are meals that students already paid for. We have a goal of 500 meals.”

On Nov. 23, Bama Dining will prepare the meals and send them by vans, courtesy of UA’s Center for Service and Leadership, to the soup bowl at Hargrove United Methodist Church, 1812 Hargrove Road East. The vans will pick up the meals at 9 a.m. at Lakeside Dining Hall.