Nestled in the valley of Southwest Virginia, Virginia Tech has become the heart of Montgomery County and the surrounding New River Valley. While students, alumni, professors, and university staff enjoy a plethora of resources at their disposal, many residents in the area are not as fortunate. In an effort to tackle our community’s issue of hunger, the men of Virginia Kappa partner with Virginia Tech Dining Services to host Flex-out Hunger, a campus-wide fundraiser directed at providing food and financial assistance for low-income families in the New River Valley. From May 6th-9th, brothers manned booths outside of each dining hall from 8am until 9pm, raising awareness for the cause and asking students to donate any remaining balance on their dining plans.
This year, with ample manpower and a determined committee, the chapter set an ambitious goal of raising $40,000. The chapter worked closely with the university’s dining services and marketing department to ensure students were aware that they could donate their remaining meal plan credits. After the four-day effort, the final amount raised was $40,251.34, the highest amount in the program’s over decade long history. These funds will help provide food for over 5,000 local families through a partnership with the Montgomery County Emergency Assistance Program (MCEAP), a local nonprofit. The chapters commitment to the program and tireless effort has once again enhanced its reputation on campus and in the surrounding community. The chapter is eager to strengthen its partnership with MCEAP in the future, pursuing a service-learning partnership and working to grow Flex-out-Hunger 2020 to greater heights!