As Miami University students gear up to leave campus, TOPPS and other charities will benefit from their donations. Students donated food and other items such as mattress toppers, ottomans to TOPPS and ShareFest. 

The Talawanda Oxford Pantry and Social Services, or TOPPS, hosted a food drive last week in conjunction with Miami University’s Panhellenic Association from April 20 to 25.

The food drive accepted canned goods, pasta, soup, and cereal. Donation boxes were posted around Miami University’s campus’s sorority dorms. 

Allie Page, the director of philanthropy of the Miami University Panhellenic Association, was in charge of placing donation boxes in each sorority dorm.

“For our drive, we reached out to TOPSS, and they told us certain items that they were in need of, so we focused on canned goods, soups, pastas, and cereals, and we received an awesome amount of donations,” Page said. 

Sherry Martin, the executive director of TOPPS, said the organization will also work in conjunction with Sharefest, a nonprofit organization, to collect and redistribute items donated by Miami University students from dorms from May 15 to 20. Students should bring donations to the Chestnut Fields Parking Lot, 101 W. Chestnut St.

Robert Abowitz, the director of residence life at Miami University and the chair of the Sharfest planning committee, said the nonprofit organization started 20 years ago after he noticed an abundance of still-usable goods from students being sent to landfills. 

“Oxford citizens noticed the piles of still-useful goods being put on the curbs for the trash trucks to pick up,” said Abowitz. “They decided to do something about it and contacted the city and University.” 

For more info, go to the ShareFest website.

Abowitz said he hopes every student and community member not only knows about the event but cares enough to follow through and bring items to the donation site.