Charity committee of RSC/RVSV collects more than 30,000 products for the Rotterdam Food Bank

The Charity Committee of RSC/RVSV organised a three-day collection drive for the Rotterdam Food Bank. Members filled thousands of crates with products, collecting food with a total value of over eighty thousand euros. This makes it the biggest collection drive for the Rotterdam Food Bank ever.

It is a festive year for the association, which is celebrating its 110th anniversary this year. There will of course be an official celebration for this in May, but RSC/RVSV wanted to do more. “The anniversary is great fun for us, but we wanted to give something back to the city”, says committee member Daphne Veltien. “The Food Bank is committed to a cause we support. That’s why we chose the Food Bank.”

To give the collection more meaning than just collecting food, a glass house was constructed at the Walhalla student association during the collection drive. From there, committee members made radio broadcasts every night. “Our focus was on the Food Bank this time, but we think it’s important to highlight other charities as well. This could be done over the radio.” The glass house was erected as a symbol of support against poverty and for various Rotterdam initiatives to combat it.

Full crates

Six months ago, committee members got in touch with Helma Beker, board member of the Rotterdam Food Bank. The committee was in close contact with her to organise the Charity Days. “This is the first time we’ve worked with students. It has become the Rotterdam Food Bank’s biggest fundraising event”, Beker says.

The committee bought a thousand old crates from the Food Bank. The crates were all filled by members. “It is bizarre how much has been collected; it’s more than we’d expected”, says the committee. In total, more than 30,000 products were collected. Within the student association, the committee members had to do a lot of lugging and stacking; in fact, the room where the crates were stored was completely full after just two days.

Points system

“We had been given a shopping list of different products beforehand. It mainly lists nonperishable items, like jam, pasta, olive oil and shower gel”, Daphne explains. To ensure that as many different products as possible were collected, the committee had drawn up a list of points. “All of the fraternities and sororities faced off against each other. Each product was worth a specific number of points, based on how expensive it is in the shop. Olive oil, for example, got the most points because it is the most expensive.”

The fraternity and sorority with the most points won a prize. “For the men, the prize is that they get to pick the bar’s location during the Lustrum. As for the chicks, the sorority gets a VIP arena to kickbox in during the sorority day. The sorority will have three months to prepare for this.” The winner on the men’s side was the Caesarean fraternity, and the winner on the women’s side was Ruis.