By Kristin Edwards

kristine@itemonline.com



Among the homecoming events taking place at Sam Houston State University today is a special food drive organized by a Huntsville resident.

It will be held during the tailgate party starting at noon in the Bowers Stadium parking lot and the 2 p.m. kickoff of the Southland Conference football game between SHSU and Northwestern State

George Dant, manager of HD Paint and Body, worked with Tangent Signs to design specific donation barrels which will be available for attendees to place food donations in during the course of the day.

The food drive will benefit the Good Shepherd Mission.

The barrels — which were specifically designed to draw a lot of attention — will be located at each of the gates at the homecoming game.

“There are going to be decorated barrels at each of the gates at the Sam Houston homecoming football game,” he said. “The barrels will be there during both the tailgate party and the game for people to drop various types of food in.

“Our goal is to have 10,000 in attendance, so if everybody brought a can or two, that would raise anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 items for the mission.”

In addition to the barrels placed at the Homecoming events, Dant said a barrel was also placed at Northside Baptist Church.

“This is just something I organized to improve on a system that’s already in place,” Dant said. “I just made a bunch of phone calls and did some leg work. The university is handling a lot of the logistics, and they even said they would deliver the food to the mission, which is wonderful.

“It’s a privilege to provide the folks of Huntsville our service and give back to the community.”

In addition to advertising on the university campus, Dant said he was also assisted by KSAM and the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority at SHSU.

“We also announced that we’d be doing this at the last football game, so we’ll see what happens,” Dant said. “It would be a shame if any more people had to go hungry.”

According to Cassandra Curtis, mission food bank manager, the mission is seriously in need of any donations — in the form of cash or food — that can be made during the food drive.

“We are desperately in need of help with our food pantry, and (Dant) really knows that,” she said. “This is something he’s done out of the kindness of his heart. He took it upon himself to put this together and we’re very grateful.”

According to Curtis, the mission needs any kind of canned meat, peanut butter, macaroni and cheese, canned beans, any kind of canned vegetable or fruit, canned soup, dry beans and rice and sandwich bags.

For more information or to donate, contact the Good Shep-herd Mission at (936) 291-8156.