University of Arkansas at Little Rock and University of Arkansas for Medical Science students have joined forces to help garner donations for community-based organizations during the annual Reach 13,000 Food Drive.

The goal of the food drive is to collect 13,000 non-perishable items that will be donated to the UA Little Rock Food Pantry, Staff Senate’s Helping Hands, and 12th Street Clinic.

To collect additional items and create awareness of the drive for the campus community, students from the Chancellor’s Leadership Corps will run a donation table from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15, in the Donaghey Student Center Foyer.

UA Little Rock community members will have the opportunity to give non-perishable items, as well as register to vote. In honor of the upcoming Constitution Day, the students will also provide donors with handouts of the Constitution.

As an incentive for donating, a piece of tape for each dollar or food item retrieved will be used to secure Chancellor’s Leadership Corps graduate assistant, Dillon Nash, to the wall.

For the second year, the food drive has been deemed a campus-wide competition. Over the course of three months, campaign organizers will keep track of student organizations and university departments that donate items. At the end of the campaign, the organization or department that contributed the most items will receive a trophy.

Items most needed for the drive include children’s books, coloring books, bottled water, canned beans, rice, cereals, canned soup, pasta, corn, and a host of other things.

Additional donation tables will be set up Friday, Oct. 27, and Thursday, Nov. 2, for the UA Little Rock Fall Festival and 7th annual Battle of the Bands, respectively.

For more information, contact the Chancellor’s Leadership Corps at clc@ualr.edu or click here to request a donation box for a university department or organization.