Grand Valley State University fraternity Delta Upsilon chipped in to help the fight against childhood hunger for their first service project, putting their sandwich-making skills to the test and making 2,666 sandwiches.

The 19 brothers made the food during a two-hour event on Nov. 12. The food went to Kids’ Food Basket, a Kent County organization that provides sack suppers with the help of individuals, families, businesses, food resources, other nonprofits and schools and teachers to ensure that lunch is not the last meal of the day for more than 4,800 kids, according to its website. The sack suppers provide more than 1,000 calorites and representatives from each of the five food groups.

“We were given a speech about what Kids’ Food Basket does and how it was founded,” said Tim Zinger, vice president of external relations for Delta Upsilon. “Some brothers helped move some boxes of supplies but that did not take long. After the speech, we all washed our hands, put on our gloves, and made two assembly lines. Our goal was to make 2,000 sandwiches.”

Zinger said he was happy that the fraternity was able to surpass its goal, but it did not stop there. Delta Upsilon also raised $1,075.57 for Kids’ Food Basket.

“We raised money by asking our families, friends, employers, classmates, and professors for donations,” Zinger said. “We told them what Kids’ Food Basket did and we also wore Kids’ Food Basket shirts around campus the Wednesday before going there to raise additional awareness for them.”

According to Kids’ Food Basket, there are 36,860 children who are food insecure in Kent County, with 16 million children in food insecure homes in the U.S. in 2010. The number of food insecure children in the Grand Rapids area has increased as the area has been hit hard by the recession; from 2000 to 2008, Grand Rapids had the largest poverty spike of any U.S. city at 8.9 percent.

Although Kids’ Food Basket was not surprised that Delta Upsilon approached them due to the amount of college students that do, they were impressed with their work.

“Were we surprised that in such a short period they raised over $1,000 to attack childhood hunger with,” said Adrienne Wallace, manager of volunteer services at Kids’ Food Basket. “That was a wonderful surprise indeed. The group capped off their efforts by volunteering on site for two hours making sandwiches, packing sack suppers, breaking down bulk items into single serving portions, decorating sack supper bags and general clean-up in our facility.”

With all of the work involved, do not count out the play. Zinger said that Delta Upsilon sang songs, talked, and overall enjoyed themselves while they worked.

“Turns out they are very good singers in addition to hard workers; they filled our workspace with song nearly their entire time on site,” Wallace said.

Zinger came across Kids’ Food Basket while researching philanthropies for the fraternity and looking back, he said it was a great decision.

“I am passionate and I am sure my other brothers are passionate about it now as well because it is a local philanthropy,” Zinger said. “This organization helps feed students in the greater Grand Rapids area. It makes it a little more personal because we know it is doing good right in our community.”

To find out ways to contribute your own efforts to Kids’ Food Basket, visit www.kidsfoodbasket.org.

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