Making a Difference One Meal at a Time

Rowan's charitable nature shined through this holiday season as individual students, faculty and staff, teams, Greek organizations and clubs donated Thanksgiving food baskets to South Jersey families affected by HIV/AIDS.

The food drive, held from mid-October through November 21, raised 28 baskets, far exceeding an initial goal of 20, providing food not only for the Thanksgiving meal but for up to three days afterward.

Suzanne Paquette, a 2004 Rowan grad who works as the events and volunteer coordinator for the AIDS Coalition of Southern New Jersey in Bellmawr, said donations to area food banks are down this year and that makes private/public food drives like Rowan's ever more vital.

"We've had to work harder but groups like Rowan did a great job," Paquette said.

She said some 200 families in Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Salem counties will eat better this holiday season thanks to people like those in the Rowan community.

While HIV/AIDS does not get the media coverage the disease once did, Paquette said there remains a crisis in New Jersey and across America.

"The problem is in thinking that HIV/AIDS has gone away. It hasn't," she said.

Most at risk are sexually active teens, older Americans and African American women, Paquette said. She said anyone who is sexually active has an obligation to not only practice safe sex but to determine their HIV/AIDS status through testing.

In addition to the annual food drive, the AIDS Coalition holds frequent fundraisers and runs a thrift store, Friends In Deed, in Collingswood, she said.

Noranne Browe, a secretary in Rowan's office of Service Learning and Volunteerism, said this is the seventh year Rowan students, faculty and staff held a food drive for the AIDS Coalition.

"People feel good about ‘adopting' a family struggling with this disease," she said. "It's the kind of thing where you know you are making a difference."

Typical donated baskets included a frozen turkey and all the fixings for a Thanksgiving meal, from vegetables and stuffing mix to pumpkin pie.

"It gets a little overwhelming around here this time of year," Browne said. "The Rowan community is just very giving."

Wendy Lopez, a student worker in Browne's office, said donating time, energy and resources to others simply feels right.

"Volunteerism is a huge passion of mine," said Lopez, 19, a psychology/sociology major from North Bergen. "It helps you grow as a person knowing you are helping someone who might be less fortunate."