It may be called Hunger Week, but volunteers hope their community service will have effects that last far longer.

Through donations, campus events and year-round service, participants in this year’s Hunger Week aim to raise awareness of homelessness and hunger in Fort Worth, an event official said.

Bo Soderbergh, university alumnus and executive director of Tarrant Area Food Bank, said the university’s events during Hunger Week help support many families in need of food. He said he has witnessed many changes in the community toward TAFB since working with the university for Hunger Week.

“I’ve really seen a tremendous change in the community’s response to hunger,” Soderbergh said.

Justin Floyd, senior religion major and a member of the panel for Hunger Week, reflected on the effect it could have on students.

“Hunger Week is one of my favorite things that TCU does…it opens up students’ eyes to things that they have needed to notice before,” he said.

Floyd said Albertsons food stores in Tarrant County donated 10,000 cans of food to the university.

Susan Frye, community events director at TAFB, said this is her fifth year working at the food bank and she has seen an increase of food donated since coming on-board.

“We’ve moved from distributing about 13 million pounds of food a year to…20 to 24 million pounds of food a year,” she said.

Soderbergh said the university contributes not only food through events like Hunger Week, but also provides volunteers at the food bank throughout the year.

“TCU on so many different levels is part of us,” Soderbergh said. “We work with a tremendous number of volunteers from the student body…we have several board members who are from TCU,”

Jake Hofmeister, associate chaplain in the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, said for the first time he helped the Rev. Angela Kaufman, minister to the university, organize the 28th Hunger Week.

Teaming up with the well-known athletics teams and other university organizations helped spread the word of Hunger Week to campus and the community, Hofmeister said.

“I know in the past we’ve teamed up with a baseball game before…so we’re doing that again and we’re really excited about that,” he said.

Floyd said he thinks students need to be aware of families in the community who are less fortunate.

“Hunger Week exists to inform students about real-life problems…that affect people who don’t have the luxury of being the typical TCU student,” Floyd said.

The food bank provides goods and services to 13 counties throughout North Texas, Frye said.

Hunger Week Upcoming Events

Today – 6:30 p.m.

Homeruns to Fight Hunger

Brown-Lupton Stadium

Wednesday – 6 p.m.

Hunger Week Banquet

$10 tickets

BLUU Ballroom

Thursday – 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Silent Auction and Celebrity Bake Sale

Sadler Lawn

Friday and Saturday

Register for HOPS Community Service Event at my.tcu.edu

Saturday – Frog Alley opens at 11 a.m. followed by game at 1 p.m.

End Hunger in the End Zones

Amon Carter Stadium