Relief project draws student complaints

Diners can't eat at McClelland McClelland Express, the snack bar in McClelland Hall in the Quadrangle, was closed Thursday because of the World Fast for Hunger fundraising campaign -- just as it has for the past few years. But students on meal plan suffered hunger pangs themselves when they were unable to redeem missed meals that night. And their stomachs were not the only things grumbling. Because of complaints, Dining Services Director Bill Canney said he plans to keep the snack bar open next year. "It's a good cause and it would be a shame for it to be destructive," he said. "We try to listen to the students." Canney said the World Fast for Hunger, which raised approximately $1,000 this year, was one of the last events included in last week's Hunger and Homelessness Week. Students who participated in the fundraising campaign gave up their dining plan meals Thursday. A portion of the cost of each meal saved was donated to Oxfam America, an international hunger relief foundation. Canney said that the snack bar in McClelland is closed every year during this event to clear up confusion for students who had pledged a meal. Students can exchange one missed meal per day for snacks at McClelland Hall. "If a meal was deducted, then there was a lot of misunderstanding that they could use a meal they had already given up," Canney said. But many students were unhappy with this policy, and several demonstrated by writing on the sign announcing the closing of the snack bar. "How is me not eating going to help?" one student wrote. Others were confused about the closing, since shutting down the snack bar does not actually result in cash for the cause. "I don't see what McClelland has to do with world hunger," College freshman Jonathan Kromberg said. "If there's food they're donating to a charity that's fine, but to close it for no reason -- I just don't see the relation," he added. Wharton freshman J. D. Slosburg also said he was annoyed by the Dining Services policy. "If they're giving the food to the homeless, that's one thing, but if they're just trying to keep it so they make a little money, it's a whole different story," he said. And one student said he thought that the closing of the snack bar in McClelland could have been better publicized. "I think it was a bad idea to not even tell us," College freshman Morgan Blackwell said. "They just took the meal away and we don't get anything back," he added.

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