By Tiffany Pelt
TxState News Intern

    This year the Student Volunteer Connection (SVC) at Texas State University is hosting it’s “Hunger and Homelessness Week” beginning this past Monday, November 13 until Friday, November 17.
    The Hunger and Homelessness Week is full of activities dedicated to educating the campus on the plight of hunger and homelessness in the local community and through out the world.
    On Monday night, students, faculty, and staff members attended the Hunger Banquet. While the term “banquet” may connote a lavish event, the “hunger banquet” is quite the opposite. In conjunction with Oxfam America, this is an educational program that is held at several college campuses each year to illustrate the issue of hunger in a real-life setting.
Tuesday marked the beginning of SVC’s Thanksgiving Food Drive that lasts until December 1. Bins are set up all around campus, in the quad, and all the residence halls so that students are able to donate their non-perishable food items to needy families during this holiday season.
    Beginning last night at 10 p.m. students piled onto the quad and held a “Sleep-Out” lasting until this morning around 6 a.m. This gave students a first hand experience of what it might be like to be homeless and have to sleep on the streets with out a warm cozy bed- something most of us take for granted.
    Students, whether individually or with their organizations, are able to volunteer today, at the local San Marcos Food Bank from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. sorting and collecting food.
Student volunteers are also helping to cook, set up, and serve Thanksgiving dinner on Friday, November 17 for local needy families and individuals with in the San Marcos community.
    This entire week, designed to teach individuals the hardships that go on in our community that we may be completely oblivious to, have allowed students to take action by helping those less fortunate families this Thanksgiving holiday to enjoy a meal they may otherwise have never known.