A food drive through kinesiology, sport, and recreation student clubs ended on Friday.

Four different kinesiology, sport, and recreation major clubs, recreation administration, sport management, exercise science and physical education, competed through the month of November, hunger action month, to see who could bring in the most canned foods and dry goods.

The major club that brings in the least amount of goods will have to buy pizza for the end-of-the-semester department bowling night.

Caro Lamarque, senior and president of the exercise science club, said she got the idea from the food drive athletics does, this year from Nov. 5 to Nov. 14.

“I took (this food drive idea) to our meeting for the exercise science club and decided this would be something really cool to be able to help out the community,” Lamarque said. “We offered it to the other concentrations within the kinesiology, sport, and recreation department, and that’s where it started.”

Lamarque said the donations will go to either the local Charleston community food pantries or the student food pantry, depending on the needs of the location.

Participation was good throughout the month, and to keep it that way they decided to extend the time of the food drive, Lamarque said.

“We started out with mainly just exercise science club because that’s the group I kind of brought it to, and it started out really well,” Lamarque said. “We had a bunch of canned food items and it was really good right away, and then we decided to do it over the whole month of November just because people went home for Thanksgiving.”

Lamarque said this is the first year the department has done something like this, and she hopes it’s something they will keep up with.

“I’ll graduate in May, I’m hoping to start a tradition that in November (kinesiology, sport, and recreation) does (a food drive),” Lamarque said. “I know November is really close to all the holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas, everything coming up—and I know a lot of people are in need at this time of the year, so I’m really hoping this starts a tradition and they continue to do it every year forward.”

Maranda Schaljo, the exercise science faculty coordinator for the exercise science club, said projects like this are essential for those who have the ability to give to others.

“I think it’s very important to serve others and to hopefully make life easier for those in need,” Schaljo said. “When we are so privileged, I think it’s important that we give back and serve those around us, especially in our small community.”

Lamarque said she thinks it is vital, especially for Eastern, to contribute and be involved with the surrounding areas.

“I’ve always been really involved in this community and in wanting to help out, and I think being able to do this is another way to get involved with the community,” Lamarque said. “We are obviously a big part of the community, being the university, and I know the community gives a lot to us, so being able to give back to them is really important to me.”

Brooke Schwartz can be reached at 581-2812 or at bsschwartz@eiu.edu.