Students, faculty, and staff from 31 different departments and organizations at Cal State San Bernardino came together to contribute to the 5th Annual Holiday PSA Food Drive benefiting The DEN Food Pantry, providing emergency nourishment to students in need.

The food drive campaign ran from Nov. 18-30, 2016 and generated more than 3,800 individual items weighing in at 1,814 pounds.

Bryant Fairley, the associate director for the Office of Student Engagement, which oversees the DEN, was overwhelmed with the campus involvement and the outcome of the campaign.

“The students seem to face more challenges now than they have in the past and the food comes at a perfect time. The campus community has become more involved this year in helping these students with the challenges they face and we couldn’t be more grateful,” said Fairley.

The campaign was coordinated by students in the 243 Strategic Communication class in the communication studies department, with help from Coyote Advertising, Coyote Radio, and The DEN. As an incentive to participate, CSUSB departments were offered a sponsored public service announcement on Coyote Radio in exchange for donating at least 50 nonperishable food and hygienic items.

“I’m very proud of students in the Comm 243D course who went above and beyond to make this campaign a success. Also, I’m humbled by the generosity shown by our campus this year, more than tripling the amount of donations in 2015,” said Jacob Poore, instructor of the class, and manager at Coyote Advertising.

Students were thrilled to see the overall support and engagement the campus community showed throughout the campaign.

“With all donations benefiting The DEN, we hope to extend a hand of friendship to all CSUSB students needing extra help this holiday season. The class hopes to have touched the lives of the students and families that the donations will reach this holiday season and are excited to see what the campaign will bring in its sixth annual year,” said Kimberly Orozco, Two43 class student.

For more information on Cal State San Bernardino, call (909) 537-5007 and visit news.csusb.edu.