TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — For the past decade an underground group of Wildcats on the University of Arizona campus has made it their mission to gift a few thousand pounds of food to the University's Food Pantry ahead of the start of the year.
Late Tuesday morning, the back of house team at the University of Arizona's Student Unions are hosting their 11th annual Gift of Giving event, a holiday party mixing fun with philanthropy.
The idea originally came from Executive Director of Student Unions Michael Omo when he was the Executive Chef.
"The goal is to basically make a ton of food every year to give to the pantry to start the new year, and to give back at the heart of the house to show that we appreciate them and what they do," Omo said.
The entry fee for those internal employees is $8 or five food items. In the past decade, the event has brought over 16,000 pounds of food to the campus food pantry.
The donations are just half of the event. Each year, the team working in the warehouse are in charge of the event decor.
Warehouse purchasing manager Kim Celeya says they start the process aright after Thanksgiving, saving items from shipments— like old cardboard, wood pallets and plastic wrap— that would otherwise go into the trash.
"It all started with my son," Celeya said. "He created a giant nutcracker, and then from there it evolved into a house, and the gingerbread and all the decorations that are around the warehouse."
They're expecting a couple hundred people to wander through the warehouse for the event, which puts warehouse operations on pause for a few hours.
——
Alex Dowd is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9, where her work combines her two favorite hobbies: talking to new people and learning about the community around her. Her goal is to eventually meet every single person in Tucson. Share your story ideas with Alex via email, alex.dowd@kgun9.com, or connecting on Instagram or X.
