Students focus on plight of homeless

The students will spend the day working at local shelters and food banks.

YOUNGSTOWN — More than 100 Youngstown State University students will sleep outside in cardboard boxes Saturday to mark National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week .

The student demonstration also is part of the 10th annual Shantytown operated by YSU’s Leslie H. Cochran University Scholars and Honors Program.

Shantytown is designed to increase awareness in the community for homelessness.

About 125 YSU students will volunteer at local agencies that serve the homeless, collect donations to be dispersed to those agencies and sleep in cardboard boxes outside Cafaro House residence hall.

The Beatitude House, The Rescue Mission of Mahoning Valley, Second Harvest Food Bank and Habitat for Humanity are where students will volunteer during the day Saturday.

They will be cleaning the facilities and serving food to those staying at the Rescue Mission, cleaning and painting at the Beatitude House, packaging food at Second Harvest Foodbank, and assisting Habitat for Humanity at one or two of their current sites.

The volunteers also have collected monetary donations, canned goods, personal-needs items and clothing to be distributed to local agencies.

After the volunteer activities conclude in the afternoon, students will prepare the boxes that they will sleep in later that night.

Pledges have been received from the Home Savings & Loan Co., Lowe’s and Home Depot in Boardman and Pizza Joe’s to support the awareness project. Lowe’s and Home Depot have pledged to supply plastic sheeting and other supplies to use for the construction of the boxes while Pizza Joe’s has pledged to donate pizzas for the volunteers.

Saturday evening, the participants will hear from Kathleen Zimmerman from the Beatitude House, watch various movies related to homelessness and participate in group activities to raise their own awareness.

Afterward, the students will sleep outside in their boxes. At the conclusion of the event, the students will recycle the boxes with the help of YSU Recycling Services.

Anyone interested in supporting the Shantytown project can call Amy Cossentino, Andrew Emig or Jason Heyman at (330) 941-2772. Donations will be accepted through the end of this month and distributed directly to the targeted agencies.