Students donate meals to fellow classmates through Feed A Need

 Omar Abdullateef wasn’t sure if his donation would count, but the second-year aerospace engineering major wanted to give a second meal to a hungry student. So, Abdullateef filled out another card that would provide a meal to a fellow Cal State Long Beach student as part of the annual Feed A need program.

“Hunger is the worst thing someone can experience,” Abdullateef said. He said he saw many people go without food back home in Egypt, where there continues to be large areas that are poor and undeveloped.

Feed A Need is the meal component of the comprehensive Student Emergency Intervention Program that was launched in 2015 and provides healthy and well-balanced meals, short-term temporary housing and emergency funds for unexpected expenses that could delay a student’s academic progress.

Students can donate meals at Parkside, Hillside or Beachside Dining Commons.

“Everyone has to eat,” said Keenan Chu, a third-year electrical engineering major. “Without eating, you can’t study. I can’t study if I haven’t eaten.”

Chu said he has donated meals each of the previous two years because “school is not cheap” and many students have been known to skip meals if they have to buy books or supplies.

“That’s why this is so important,” he said.

Last year, Feed A Need resulted in 1,222 donated meals. The 49er Shops, the non-profit corporation that operates dining services on campus, donated an additional 1,422 meals to the cause. The program runs through Friday.