UT Reporter: Students Fighting Hunger

The Capital Area Food Bank is getting help from student volunteers who take time off from studying and socializing to help people who need it.

Senior James Hammond has volunteered with Hunger and Homelessness Outreach nearly every weekend for the past three semesters.

"It gave me the opportunity to help people on a weekly basis," he said.

Hammond is now one of the leaders of the student group, known my members as H2O.

The two H's, hunger and homelessness, stand for the group's main issues.

"There's really no priority between hunger and homelessness. Oftentimes they go hand in hand, and we really try to benefit as man people in low income situations as possible," Hammond said.

On a recent visit, the group's main focus was hunger as they inspected and packaged food for local pantries.

Activities like this piqued the interest of blogger Elisa Olivarez, who writes about hunger in her blog, Keep Austin Full.

"They're the first organization I went to because they deal explicitliy with hunger and they do things explicitly in the local community," she said.

But around here, there are a lot of student groups that take time to lend a hand for hunger.

H20 is just one of four UT groups helping out at the Capital Area Food Bank today. People at the food bank say they rely on UT students for their help and volunteerism.

"At least 95 to 98 percent of the work done here at the food bank is by volunteers," said Cathy Roach with the Capital Area Food Bank.

Roach deals with H2O and other student volunteers at the food bank. She see's the group on a regular basis. Students come to help the group responsible for stocking most of the food pantries in Austin.

And some come to learn aobut post-grad job opportunities with non-profits.

"Our other goal is to show students that even once they've graduated there are a plurality of things they can do," Roach said. "There's no real end to what you can do in the world."