About five years ago, Ron Truelove saw a box for donations for the poor during the Christmas season. It was empty.
The psychological science instructor grew up poor and hungry. He said he didn't even have a bed until he was 16 years old. He felt obligated to fill the empty box.
Truelove and the Department of Psychology began a biannual campaign to collect food. He said he started giving students extra credit for bringing in food after he saw the empty box.
Earlier this week, Truelove received a copy of a letter from the Muncie Mission to President Jo Ann Gora congratulating and thanking the psychology department for its help during the past five years. The letter said the department has donated more than 50,000 cans of food in five years.
Truelove's 500 students and the rest of the department have rivaled the post office in the amount they've donated, he said.
"The students are just going crazy with this," he said. "One student brought in 55 cans."
The Department of Psychology has a week-long food drive twice a year. The drives have become more popular each time, he said. Students are excited about it because they want to help, and they just need something to participate in, he said.
A lot of friction exists between Muncie and Ball State University, Truelove said. Things like this help to alleviate some of that.
"We're trying to get it so the whole department does this," he said. "You know, we could feed the whole city. Fifty thousand cans of food? That's a lot of chow."
Things like this show the outside community that Ball State cares, Truelove said. College is about more than grades, he said; it's about becoming a good person, and a lot of people in Muncie need help.
Truelove said he was proud of the teaching assistants and students who have helped out with the drive.
"I just put it together," he said. "The kids need the praise. ... They're the ones who did the work."
Truelove and others will collect donations from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Wednesday in North Quad Room 118. The Muncie Mission will collect the food around 2 p.m. Wednesday.
This year's goal is to collect and donate 10,000 cans.
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