NCDC volunteers open new sites

By Madeleine Wright
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
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A community service group on campus is hoping to strengthen Northwestern's relationship with Evanston with free lunches to help feed Evanston’s homeless.

The Northwestern Community Development Corps opened a new site this year called Friday Sack Lunches. The site’s volunteers aim to provide Evanston’s homeless with a free meal they didn’t have before.

“There are meals available for the homeless and people in need in Evanston for every meal except for Friday lunches,” said Kristen Cragwell, co-chair of NCDC.

Cragwell said Friday Sack Lunches helps fill that gap once a month, when NCDC volunteers meet at Parkes Hall to make sandwiches. Volunteers meet every third Friday of the month, creating a “really well balanced meal,” Cragwell said, complete with bananas, chips, fruit, and juices.

"It means a lot to the people who are receiving the lunches,” Cragwell said.

When all the food is ready, volunteers bring it to one of Evanston's churches where the homeless can pick up a lunch, sit down, and chow down. And thanks to discounts, Cragwell said it only costs $150 to feed 80 homeless.

Cragwell and Sharanya Jaidev, also NCDC co-chair, said they believe that by bridging the food gap, they can also bridge the community gap between Northwestern and Evanston.

"Everything we do [at NCDC] is really about making sure that campus and surrounding communities are…the relationship is strengthened or bettered and really brought into the light,” said Jaidev.

NCDC created another new site this year called Misercordia, which lets students work with developmentally disabled adults. The group's leaders say it's just one example of the diversity of social issues NCDC tries to improve.