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Shelves of food await clients at the Jonnycake Center in Peace Dale. The center spends $1,500 on food every week and serves about 1,000 families. The URI Greek community recently donated $12,000 to the center.

In Peace Dale, URI Greek community lends a hand

By: Tyler Will

Posted: 12/3/08

12/03/08 - A food pantry less than three miles from the University of Rhode Island Kingston campus that serves about 1,000 families received a $12,000 donation from the URI Greek community.

The Jonnycake Center provides food and other basic needs to families in the local area.

Phil Bowers, the president of the Inter-Fraternity Council, and Kerri Koppenaal, president of the Panhellenic Association, presented the center with the donation last week, according to a press release.

All 13 fraternities and all nine sororities participated, the release says.

The center, located on Route 108, consists of a food pantry and a thrift shop, and provides information for needy families to find heating assistance and toiletry items.

Jonnycake Center Development Officer Lisa Wright said the $12,000 donation will last about six or seven weeks, because the center spends about $1,500 a week on food.

"I think this is probably the most generous donation we've got from the Greek system," Wright said. "It was such a tremendous gift they gave to us. We were really impressed."

Wright said this time last year, the center served about 567 families, and that number has doubled in the last year. "People are coming in every day," she said.

Though the donation will account for several weeks of purchasing, it will also supply the center's pantry with several months of food.

The center's pantry, which is about the size of the Corner Store in the Hope Commons, has food from all food groups on the food pyramid, and Wright said customers usually come about once a month and are allowed to take about one week's amount of food.

Bowers said the Jonnycake Center was chosen because the Greek community wanted to honor URI President Robert L. Carothers' career, and the money was donated to a charity of his choosing. Philanthropy Week was held Nov. 15 to Nov. 22.

"We wanted to honor President Carothers for all he has done for the URI community as well as the Greek Community," Bowers said in an e-mail.

The center buys canned food from a food bank at 10 cents per pound, Wright said. The most expensive - and perishable - food is milk and eggs, but those are usually taken quickly.

Jonnycake Center employee Robin Freeman said without continued donations, the center would run out of food in about a week.

The pantry was a recent addition to the Jonnycake Center. Wright said the center "outgrew" its original post, which is right on the Route 108 traffic circle. The new pantry is behind the main building because providing food to the needy is a growing business, Wright said.

"It's not really a good thing," she said.

Because of the difficult economic times, the $12,000 is well appreciated, but inflation has lowered the impact of the money. The prices of some of the goods at the center have risen about 30 percent, Wright said.

Bowers said the Jonnycake Center was chosen before Philanthropy week started.

"I wanted to have it chosen beforehand so we could tell everyone during the week exactly who all of our hard work was benefiting," Bowers said.

To raise the money, the Greek community held a basketball tournament, a karaoke competition, a "Penny Wars" competition, a Salvation Army date auction and a mock-edition of the television game show, "The Price is Right."

Bowers said the community service is part of a "core" in every fraternity and sorority.

"Greek life has always been on the forefront of community service and philanthropy, and as our programming improves, as our leaders improve, and as our resources expand, we have the increasing ability to have a bigger impact and affect more people in the world around us," Bowers said.

The center also has 64 middle and high school volunteers, Wright said. It has occasionally received donations from URI students, and provides food to some URI graduate students who aren't working.

At the end of each academic year, Wright said the university dorms donate any clothing or leftover food items found in the residence halls.

"We'll end up with a lot of ramen noodles and hot chocolate," she said.

When a person enters the food pantry, they are not required to take a specific kind of food, which is called "client select," Wright said.

"We don't want anybody to take food they're not going to use," she said.

Larger families are allowed to take more food than smaller ones, and the allocations are determined by the food pyramid and estimates of how much food a family eats in one week, Wright said.

The center is open to receive donations Tuesday through Friday at 9 a.m. until noon, and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. until noon, or until the intake center fills up.