MTSU’s littlest students at Project Help are lending a hand to their big friends on campus this holiday season.

The children of the early-intervention preschool are teaming up with the MTSU Student Food Panty and Jones Therapy Service to keep the shelves stocked with supplies for hungry students on campus.

On Nov. 16, Project Help staffers delivered brimming boxes of food donated during the children’s annual trick-or-treating buggy ride across campus.

One of the poster girls for Project Help’s Student Food Pantry drive poses next to a box filled with donations. (photos courtesy of Project Help)

“We take the ‘help’ in Project Help very seriously,” said Director Susan Waldrop.

“When we heard about the need in the student community, we knew we had to do something to help. Almost 200 MTSU students help in our classrooms each year, so this is our chance to give something back.”

Becca Seul launched the MTSU Student Food Pantry, located in the McFarland Building, this fall after she noticed a growing number of students in need across campus.

“With the holidays coming up, it’s important to us that we make sure our hungry students are taken care of,” Seul said. “Many of them will be without families over the break, so our being able to provide them with food is one less stress they will have to worry about.

“To see and hear the responses we get from students accessing the pantry, you would think we’ve given them the world. It’s amazing what such a little bit of food can do to help them in the big picture, which is their academic success. We want them to succeed, and it’s a proven fact that students succeed with a full stomach!”

Project Help’s costumed toddlers and staff also used their Halloween cross-campus trek as an opportunity to spread awareness for the food pantry while distributing donation boxes to various locations.

They plan to continue collecting donations of nonperishable food items at the main Project Help facility, located at 206 N. Baird Lane, for the Student Food Pantry.

Founded in 1983, Project Help provides free early-intervention and family-support services to very young children with disabilities and developmental delays. It currently serves 68 children, including 45 with special needs.

Seul and the MTSU Student Food Pantry can be contacted at 615-494-8910 or becca.seul@mtsu.edu.

For more information about Project Help, including a link to more great photos at its Facebook page, visit its website at www.mtsu.edu/projecthelp.

Project Help students help sort donated food items into boxes for the MTSU Student Food Pantry.

A Project Help student studies an almost-full box of donated items before adding her contribution.

Children from Project Help rest a bit after helping place food donations into boxes for the bigger kids on campus.

Project Help supporters pose with some of the boxes of donations for the MTSU Student Food Pantry. From left are Brandon Brown, philanthropic coordinator for the Student Government Association, Project Help Director Susan Waldrop and Amanda Damaschun and Kristen Keene of MTSU’s James E. Walker Library.