The faculty at Chattanooga State Community College believe strongly in their institution’s mission to the residents of the College’s six-county service area, both inside and outside of the classroom. On a recent weekday, members of the College’s Humanities & Fine Arts Division (HFA) took a break from their fall semester academic preparations to carry the College’s mission of service beyond the campus and into the community. 

Nearly 20 faculty members spent the morning at the Chattanooga Area Food Bank (CAFB) assisting the staff in the sorting and packing of food that is donated daily by local partners. The ChattState crew packed more than 125 emergency food boxes for distribution to area agencies and sorted 1.75 tons of sweet potatoes into 5-pound bags for individual distribution.

The CAFB’s feeding programs provide 13.3 million pounds of food annually to their 165,000 clients who live below the poverty line in the Chattanooga service area. Ongoing volunteer opportunities include warehouse help, food sorting and packing, office assistance, truck driving, and special event volunteers.

“ChattState shares the Chattanooga Area Food Bank’s mission of serving those in need in our community. As community college professors, we encounter daily ‘in a very real way’ the extreme circumstances in which some of our fellow residents live. While we work hard to meet their educational needs and set them on the path to a better life, volunteering at the CAFB allows us to help meet some of the immediate physical needs as well,” said Dr. Joel Henderson, Chair of the Humanities Department. “We try to make our visit to the CAFB an annual event. As community college employees, the Food Bank is a natural destination for our volunteer efforts,” he adds.

For more information on volunteering at the Chattanooga Area Food Bank, contact Mark Schock at 423-622-1800. For more information about ChattState service learning opportunities, contact Dedric Maffitt, Student Activities Director, at 423-697-2482.