Bread & Soup Nite Offers Transcendent Student Benefits
Posted: March 21, 2017 | Author: Abigail Wyatt | Read Time: 2 minutes
Orem, Utah native Sami Wright is a senior majoring in elementary education at Southern Utah University, and she’s making a difference. For the past two years, Wright has been a service leader over the popular Bread & Soup Nite campus food-raising event designed to provide students in need with important food staples
Bread & Soup Nite is a monthly food raiser for the HOPE Pantry, SUU’s campus food pantry that serves between 60 and 90 students each month. An inexpensive, all-you-can-eat bread and soup dinner featuring live entertainment, the food raiser attracts anywhere from 300 to 500 people who pay for their meal with cash and/or cans of food.
During her freshman year, Wright started attending Bread & Soup Nite. The following year she began volunteering at the event. She enjoyed it so much she applied to be one of the event’s service leaders – something she says changed her university experience for the better.
“I loved seeing how charitable people were with their food donations and time,” she said. “I see the obstacles and challenges many students have to face, and it makes me so grateful that SUU provides these types of opportunities.”
Pam Branin mentored Wright through the process. Branin oversees the HOPE Pantry and is the Associate Director of the Community Engagement Center. “Pam has helped me grow as a leader and as a person,” said Wright. “She has helped me with Bread & Soup Nite, taught me how to delegate and showed me the importance of being committed to helping others.”
“When you try to understand others you can really start to see how you can make a difference in their lives,” said Wright. “I’ve learned to look beyond myself to help others. I wouldn’t trade that for anything.”
Wright knows her work for Bread & Soup Nite will help her in her career as a teacher. She credits the event for teaching her to manage volunteers, run events smoothly, gain organizational skills, improve her time management, have better communication and understand others better.
Bread & Soup Nite is on the first Monday of every month from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Sharwan Smith Student Center Ballroom. It costs $2 with a food donation and $3 without. Students can help by getting involved at the Community Engagement Center located here on campus. If you’re interested in volunteering at Bread & Soup Nite email bsn@suu.edu.
Learn more about SUU's elementary education program.
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