Fear the walking students

BY Bryan Ramos | THE RIDER

With Halloween just a week away, students at UTRGV are spreading the fun for a good cause.

Lecturer Mary Ann Escamilla’s English 1302 students will host a Zombie Walk on Wednesday in Edinburg designed to have fun while raising awareness to fight hunger insecurity. Her students were inspired by the Syfy television show “Z Nation,” which is about zombies.

The Zombie Walk is an opportunity for people to get in the Halloween spirit and have zombie makeup applied when they contribute one to two cans of non-perishable food, which will be donated to the UTRGV Student Food Pantry.

Assistant Professor Jennifer Saxton’s theater students will be on hand to take care of the zombie makeover. Participants will then roam around campus as a horde of zombies for a zombie walk, bringing a Halloween feel to people on campus while raising awareness about the Student Food Pantry.

“We want people to walk away knowing UTRGV has great support systems for the students, including making sure that they’ve eaten,”

Escamilla said. “I don’t think enough of our students understand that. What’s more important than to make sure our students are fed and not hungry while they’re trying to learn? … I feel the Food Pantry helps out so well.”

The events kick off with a Blood Drive from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Quad on the Edinburg campus. United Blood Services will collect blood for vampires and local hospitals in need.

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. there will be a Hunger Insecurity Presentation at the Student Union Café where students in Escamilla’s 1302 class will showcase posters they’ve made to raise awareness about hunger insecurity.

Zombie makeovers will be from 5 to 6 p.m. Students who donate one to two cans of non-perishable food will receive a makeover to turn them into something straight out of “The Walking Dead.”

The Zombie Walk is from 6 to 7 p.m. and will start in front of the Edinburg Liberal Arts Building South. Participants will follow the lead zombie for the walk and will have an opportunity to have their photo taken and posted on social media. Kona Ice will sell snow cones during the event.

The events will run all day and students are encouraged to donate food or blood and participate in the Halloween event for a good cause.
The UTRGV Student Food Pantry’s mission is “to assist students in need by providing food supplemental to those impacted by financial problems and conditions, and are subsequently experiencing difficulty meeting their nutritional needs,” according to its website.

Coordinator Jennifer Cerda told The Rider that the pantry serves 35 to 40 students per week on the Edinburg campus and 15 to 20 students per week on the Brownsville campus.

Among the items in high demand at the pantry are canned fruits, vegetables, beans, soups, tuna and chicken; dried foods such as oatmeal, crackers, pancake mix, pasta and rice; and also apple sauce, fruit snacks, juice, peanut butter, jelly, pasta sauce and water.

Paola Salazar, a junior psychology major who is helping run the event, said this is a good opportunity to raise awareness on a very real problem that affects college students everywhere.

“I think it’s very important for students to understand that there are students at the university who experience hunger,” Salazar said. “When you think of university students, you don’t think that they experience hunger because they can afford a college education. I want people to be aware of the face that students who go to school can actually experience hunger, just like other things.”

For more information, visit the event’s Facebook page at Zombie Walk Food Drive.