“The only thing Greeks like to do more than eat is to feed others,” said Graduate Education student Anna Karnaze, a member of the U.Va. Hellenic Society, an award-winning student group that works to promote Greek culture. This semester the group plans to live up to this ideal by sponsoring the University’s Campus Kitchen project, which uses leftover food from dining halls to combat local hunger.
The society hopes to kick its partnership with the Campus Kitchen into gear after Thanksgiving and again during Easter by collecting food from University dining halls and local Greek-owned restaurants to distribute to community organizations. Karnaze helped found the University’s Campus Kitchen chapter, which began operations in February 2010, she said.
“The partnership between Campus Kitchen and Hellenic Society seemed like such a natural partnership, which is why I suggested the idea originally, and my teammates in the Hellenic Society really made [the sponsorship] a reality,” Karnaze said.
Karnaze said she benefited from her close relationship with current leaders of the Campus Kitchen project and from knowing ”the ins and outs of the operations” after serving on the group’s leadership team as an undergraduate.
To some society members, collaborating with the Campus Kitchen is just another part of being a good neighbor. “We would be helping our neighbors in need and strengthening the relationship between the U.Va. Hellenic Society and the local Charlottesville community,” said Graduate Arts & Sciences student Alexander Zestos, who also presented at the October competition.
Members of the group recognized that sponsoring Campus Kitchen could help fight the problem of hunger in Charlottesville, which some members said were too easily overlooked.
“The Campus Kitchen plan stood out because of its direct impact on our local community,” Zestos said. “According to the local NBC29 news, over 25 percent of Charlottesville is below the national poverty line. Sponsoring Campus Kitchen would allow us to collect and distribute food to needy families in the greater Charlottesville area.”
The group presented their plans to a panel of judges last month at the first annual Greeks Give Back national student competition and won a $1,000 grant, which can be extended and renewed for multiple years. College students from 20 Hellenic societies across the U.S. created and presented philanthropic plans that could impact a school, city or county to a panel of judges. The competition held at Georgetown featured five finalists: groups from Harvard University, New York University, Georgetown, University of Illinois-Chicago and the University of Virginia. The University’s team won first place.
The competition allowed members to meet influential people of Greek descent who served on the panel of judges. “This was an amazing competition,” fourth-year Architecture student Demitra Skipper said. “Not only was I able to travel to Georgetown to meet Greek-American finalists from different schools, but I was able to meet amazing Greek-American adults such as Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Wizards and Capitals, Congressman John Sarbanes from Maryland, and Barbara Pope, former assistant secretary of state, who truly believe in the strength of philanthropy.”
By winning this national competition, the society hopes to increase awareness of their organization and their partnership with Campus Kitchen. “My involvement in the competition was primarily related to the society’s future instead of my own,” said Elefterios Trikantzopoulos, third-year College student and the presenter during the competition. “It is my hope that our involvement and success in the competition will motivate some of our younger members, as well as fellow college students and clubs.”
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