Penn State students give back to the community

Students at Penn State Lehigh Valley are working together to collect food and donations to create Thanksgiving dinners for needy families in the community. Student organizations, faculty and staff have taken up the cause to deliver dinners with all the trimmings -- turkey, stuffing, vegetables, cranberry sauce, gravy, rolls, pumpkin pie and juice -- on Nov. 22 to the Sixth Street Shelter in Allentown. Donations are being accepted through Nov. 21. Students will gather Nov. 22 in the Penn State Lehigh Valley Atrium to assemble the packages and deliver them to the Sixth Street Shelter, where they will be dispersed to the families in need. In addition to the Thanksgiving dinners, the students are collecting nonperishable food items that will be distributed to a local food bank. Ann M. Williams, chancellor of Penn State Lehigh Valley, believes in the added value of service learning for students. "If we are truly going to produce future leaders, we need to emphasize the major component of 'giving back' to the community," Williams explained. "Our service learning approach not only transmits this philosophy but it enables students to implement simultaneously what they are learning in the classroom. It is this connection that turns learning into leading."