Community Corner
College of Charleston Greek Life Kicks Off Pep Supper 2013 with YouGiveGoods
Students Utilize Online Donation System to Raise More Food for the Hungry
As students from around the country trickle back into beautiful Charleston, South Carolina for the start of another academic year at The College of Charleston, many things are on their minds. What classes will I take? Which clubs will I join? How will the soccer team be this year? And, who will be the winner of this year’s Pep Supper?
Pep Supper is a way for the students to give back to their community, and it has a long-standing
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relationship with Lowcountry Food Bank. Last year, the fraternities and sororities raised a total of over 40,000 pounds of food after teaming up with YouGiveGoods to use their online technology, an amount of food that shattered the prior Pep Supper record of 24,000 pounds set in 2011. In today’s economy, more and more people are struggling to feed their families. The record breaking amount of food the students raised for Pep Supper 2012 went a long way to help the hungry in the Lowcountry.
Pep Supper kicked off on September 25, 2013. Once again, fraternities and sororities have set up their individual drives on YouGiveGoods’ website to compete in the annual food drive contest. The YouGiveGoods system tracks donations in real-time, 24-7.
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YouGiveGoods CEO, Patrick O’Neill said, “Before the Greek community at The College of Charleston started using our system for Pep Supper, people were just dropping off food at the fraternity and sorority houses, and counting it all at the end. With YouGiveGoods, all of the donations are tracked in real-time, so you can literally watch on your computer as one team moves ahead of another. It’s very exciting. Last year, donations were coming in up until the very last minute of the competition.”
The 2012 contest raised over 24,300 pounds of food online through YouGiveGoods. Two of the sororities, Kappa Alpha Theta and Alpha Delta Pi were neck and neck the whole time. College of Charleston sophomore and Zeta Tau Alpha member, Riley Connell said, “Last year’s competition was so intense. People were constantly logged on to the YouGiveGoods website watching the numbers grow. It was really fun to see a team pull ahead of another one right before our eyes. With a traditional food drive, we never would have been able to do this. YouGiveGoods made the whole experience so much more fun for everyone involved. And at the end of the competition, they delivered all of the food to the food bank for us!”
Anyone can get involved in this year’s Pep Supper to support the Lowcountry by clicking here to visit the Leaderboard. Simply choose the fraternity or sorority you’d like to support, the food you’d like to donate, and check out! At the end of the competition, the food you purchased will be delivered to the Lowcountry Food Bank for you and you will receive a tax-deductible receipt.
YouGiveGoods is based in Mendham, NJ and is operated by a group of people who strongly believe in the importance of helping others in need. The company’s website, YouGiveGoods.com, was developed to make it easier for people and organizations to set up and run in-kind charity drives, including food drives and animal shelter drives. The site provides free services to charities and makes it simpler for people to donate goods to the charities they want to support. The innovative technology platform is designed to inspire people to give and help others. Visit YouGiveGoods.com.