Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week

ConnPIRG held their Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Campaign the week before Thanksgiving! Tricia Cavanaugh (2014) made great flyers to encourage students to come to the events.  Volunteers tabled with facts about homelessness and a cardboard house made by Nicole S. (2014).

The week culminated with the SleepOut! The SleepOut was organized by student volunteers to raise awareness about Homelessness and educate about the true faces of homelessness and the need to address affordable housing in Connecticut.
Speakers included Reverend Woods of the Hartford Rescue Mission and Richard Luchansky of Immaculate Conception Shelter and Housing Corporation. Reverend Woods presented his reflections from starting his a food kitchen and shared the recent growth the program has experienced as they expand services to include emergency housing.  After an a Cappella performance with the Trinitones, Richard and Michael spoke powerfully on the invisible faces of homelessness.
Afterwards the students made s'mores, reflected on the themes of the night, and built a huge box fort before going to 'bed' in their sleeping bags.  The next morning one student said, "I was so cold last night, even with the body heat of everyone else in the fort and the huge extra sleeping bags we had over us.  It was a reminder of how important it is to address homelessness in Hartford."

Also, the Amnesty Chapter at Trinity College held the Annual Hunger Banquet on Friday, November 19 - the same night as the SleepOut.  Volunteers flyered for the event which took place in the Washington Room.  Participants 'paid' with a donation of canned goods and/or cash.

Praxis baked almost 200 apple pies for Thanksgiving! Members gathered in Hamlin Hall at 11 am to make the pies, and some assembled boxes for delivery.  Volunteers got to see the insides of the Mather bakery and the huge, commercial oven that was used to make the pies.  As a few volunteers took the pies out after an hour, they enjoyed the delicious smells!

Another group on campus, Habitat for Humanity, completed their third build of the semester that same day.  Ten volunteers met and carpooled to the build site in Hartford, where volunteers worked with two families in building a house.