Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest Volleyball Gives Back to the Community
2/22/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Feb. 22, 2011
By Courtney Shively, WakeForestSports.com
Pro Humanitate: It's the spirit of giving back to the community. Last month, the Wake Forest volleyball team had an eye-opening experience in giving back to the Winston-Salem community, as they helped donate unsold produce to The Potter's Home.
While many of the women on the team enjoy volunteering, they find that they do not always have the time they wish to devote to certain causes due to the amount of time and effort they put into volleyball and their schoolwork. However, these student-athletes made time for a seemingly simple task that had a great impact.
Assistant coach Jennifer Adeva got in contact with Wake Forest's Campus Kitchen in order to put together a team service project. They planned to take a trip to a local grocery store and take that day's unsold produce to a local community agency.
The team piled into a van and set off for the Fresh Market to sort through unsold produce. The sorting process only took about 30 minutes, but the amount of extra food they collected during this short period of time astounded many of the girls.
Sophomore Andrea Beck elaborated on the sorting process and guessed that by the end of the process there was nearly 200 pounds of unsold produce. After all of the leftover food was sorted, the girls packed the produce into trucks so that they could make their delivery.
"There was so much food that would have gone to waste," said Beck. "It was a good feeling to know that it could be used for a great cause."
The team decided to bring the unsold produce to The Potter's Home, which offers many services including a child care program. Though they did not get the chance to serve the food to the children, they knew that by simply delivering this leftover produce, they were putting food on the table for a child that may not have had that option without their help.
Although this service project only lasted for a few hours, many of the girls experienced an enlightening moment that really put things into perspective.
"It was really shocking to see how much food gets wasted in grocery stores," said junior Madison Vain. "But that made it even more meaningful when we got to see that the food goes to good use. We live in a time of excess and it is really rewarding to know that we can help our community by giving back to those who need it most."
The volleyball team definitely portrayed University's motto of Pro Humanitate in their latest service endeavor. They saw first-hand just how much excess we live in without realizing it, and they learned how they can help to fix this problem. This eye-opening experience will hopefully serve as a great example for the greater Wake Forest community and show how something so seemingly simple can greatly affect another person.
