The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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November 14, 2009

Frat helps stock food shelf

Lambda Alpha Chi collecting donations

By Robb Murray

MANKATO — As Minnesota State University students Chris Wilke and Alex Sukalski went door to door in upper North Mankato Saturday, not everyone was happy to see them.

“Some people were pretty stone faced,” Wilke said. “But once you hand them a bag and explain, instantly their whole mood changes.”

Wilke and Sukalski — and a handful of other members of the Lambda Alpha Chi fraternity from Minnesota State University — hustled around the Mankato and North Mankato areas Saturday handing out Cub Foods grocery sacks.

Attached to each sack was this message: “In these hard economic times, we must look to those who are less fortunate than ourselves. People in your community go hungry every day, and we, Lambda Chi Alpha, want to do something about it.”

The letter goes on to explain that the bags are being distributed so that people can fill them up with non-perishable goods. Then, next week, fraternity brothers will pick them up.

The effort is part of a national program called the North American Food Drive. It has provided more than 32 million pounds of food for needy families in local communities throughout the United States and Canada over the past 16 years. Last year the fraternity’s chapters brought in nearly 3 million pounds of food.

The program comes at a critical time, too. As the economy continues to struggle, food shelves are seeing more demand than ever for their services. Locally, the ECHO food shelf had to hire a full-time staff member to keep up with demand. And winter is approaching fast.

Wilke and Sukalski, both sophomores and best friends for the last 10 years, said they’ve learned from the project and hope they can do whatever they can to improve their community.

“We’re helping a good cause, helping the needy,” Sukalski said. “It’s also shown me that people around Mankato care.”

Lambda Chi Alpha is a Christian fraternity. And Wilke said they pride themselves on not falling into the fraternity stereotype.

“I think a lot of people hear fraternity and think ‘Animal House,’” he said. “We like to try and show people we’re not like that.”

Their fraternity doesn’t engage in hazing. In fact, they said quite the opposite is true.

“Our motto is we wouldn’t do anything you wouldn’t want to do in front of your grandmother,” Wilke said.

Come Saturday, they’ll collect all the grocery sacks and bring them to the ECHO Food Shelf. Then they’ll resume their other charitable endeavors, such as working on Habitat for Humanity homes or coordinating the annual Special Olympics event next spring.

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