Westminster College plans MLK Day of Service Monday

Westminster College students stuff packs full of meals, juice, snacks and other goods for the Buddy Packs program at the college's MLK Day of Service last year. This year's event, held 2-4 p.m. Jan. 21 in Mueller Student Lounge, aims to pack a two-month supply of meals for Callaway school children in need.
Westminster College students stuff packs full of meals, juice, snacks and other goods for the Buddy Packs program at the college's MLK Day of Service last year. This year's event, held 2-4 p.m. Jan. 21 in Mueller Student Lounge, aims to pack a two-month supply of meals for Callaway school children in need.

For the second year in a row, volunteers at the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri's Buddy Pack program will get a much-deserved break in their workload.

Westminster College is hosting "The MLK Day of Service," in which about 300 students will gather from 2-4 p.m. in the Mueller Student Center on Jan. 21 and devote the day to assembling the planned nutritional meals for low-income area school children.

The event is part of a long-running tradition of making Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a day of service rather than a holiday off, said coordinator and Westminster Fellow for Community Engagement and Service Learning Hannah Minchow-Proffitt. The Buddy Pack program has been the organization to benefit from the volunteer day for the past two years.

Last year's event was one of the biggest philanthropic draws for the college, bringing together 300 people to pack just over 1,000 Buddy Packs. This year, they hope to pack a two-month supply - about 1,700 packs.

"We're always striving to progress as a college and really push the boundaries on social justice and service opportunities, so we like to have a lot of them and like for them to be big," said Minchow-Proffitt.

To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.