For the past twenty years, Ashland University’s Social Work Club has organized a “Skip-A-Meal” event.

This event gives students and faculty the opportunity to donate unused meal swipes, as well as monetary donations to create baskets filled with necessities for local community members connected with the Associate Charities Food Bank of Ashland.

The event took place earlier this year on Ashland’s campus, with the event bringing in 480 meal swipe donations and fifty dollars in cash. Over twenty-five social work club members participated in the event.

Co-president of the social work club, Kayla Hershberger, said she was pleased with the event.

“Jessica [Heck] and I were so proud to be able to work on this project and we were very thrilled about the outcome,” she said. “Skip-A-Meal was a huge success and it was not possible without the members of the Social Work Club and our fellow students. The club donated both food and hygiene baskets. A single basket with food staples was donated for every ten meal swipes given and one hygiene basket was created with the donation of five meal swipes.”

The event was revamped this year following conflict with Dining Services. Previously, the event presented a monetary donation to United Way, but after disagreements about how much money should be given, the club and dining services agreed to change the event to instead donate baskets to the local food bank.

Sample baskets were on display in Convo during the event. Students were able to decide how many meal swipes they wanted to donate to the cause.

Members of the social work club then bought the necessary items in bulk and put the baskets together to donate to the food bank.

Co-president of the social work club, Jessica Heck said the club continues the event simply because they enjoy giving back.

“We did this, and will continue to do this, because we care about the community of Ashland,” she said. “We give back to the community not because it looks good on a resume or because it gets us a picture in the paper, but because it’s our true passion.”