Marking the last day of Homecoming week for Grand Valley State University was Saturday Oct. 11; a day full of fun, friends, football and, for the Truck Club, philanthropy.

The GVSU Truck Club recently held the first of a series of food drives they plan to hold throughout the next month in an effort to collect canned food to donate to families in time for Thanksgiving.

The Truck Club is a fairly new student organization on campus, and the food drives will serve as the group’s first charity event. Members look forward to making a difference in any way they can.

Chris Sledz, the vice president of Truck Club, said the club is doing its best to put itself out there so people know about the food drive.

“We’re just trying to get out there and get involved with as many organizations that we can,” Sledz said.

Catt Noakes, a member of Truck Club who is also involved with the community service subgroup, developed the idea of having a canned food drive. She was inspired by the results of food drives that were held when she was in high school.

“Every single year it was this huge event,” Noakes said. “We donated thousands of cans each year.”

Noakes hopes for a similar involvement among both GVSU students and people in the community. She said the club chose to host food drives because food is something that a lot of people are in need of, and the timing coincided really well with the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Truck Club will be holding food drives at the tailgates before each home football game, and will be on campus throughout the weeks of each food drive. Dorm buildings, on-campus and off-campus apartments are a few locations where the club plans to set up collection areas.

Donations will be accepted until Nov. 15 and brought to St. John’s Lutheran Church in Jenison, where their goal is to donate two full truck beds of food.

The club chose St. John’s based on their strong community need for food, as well as their own experience in organizing food drives.

Only canned food will be accepted, and any money given in the form of a donation will be used to buy canned food.

Though the Truck Club has not done community service projects like this before, the group hopes to continue on with different charity events throughout the year. Noakes said the officers of the club are working on getting as many people interested and involved in the club as possible so they can really have an impact in helping the community.

“We just want to get as many people involved as we can,” Sledz said.

The Truck Club began as a small group of male friends who shared a common interest, and has grown into a registered student organization with over 70 male and female members who want to help out the community in any way that they can.