Into the Streets for Washburn University has a new look this year from the past.  This year for the 15th annual Into the Streets will be towards the Haiti relief fund on May 2 at 10 a.m. at Agriculture Hall at the Expocentre.

Washburn students and members of the community will be boxing up 285,120 meals to send to Haiti.  The meals will consist of rice, soy, freeze dried vegetables, chicken flavoring and 21 vitamins to assist the immune system.  The cost of each package is 30 cents, or a total of $85,000, to reach the entire goal.  Once packaged, the Salvation Army World Services will deliver the meals to Kansas City.  Then they be flown to Miami, then transported to Haiti.  The food will take about seven to 10 days to arrive. 

“In the past years, we have done a lot of activities in Topeka and in the community, but this year, we shifted gears since there are so many work day events going on, so we focused on Haiti because it was such a logical thing,” said Rick Ellis, director of Learning in the Community (LinC) Washburn Scholar/Bonner Leaders Americorps program.

Numana Inc., an international hunger relief organization located in El Dorado, also plays a huge role in making this event happen.  LinC and Christian Challenge are also sponsoring the event.

“Christian Challenge actually brought the idea to our attention, and they needed partners to get this going and it just worked out.  But we are going to need volunteers, that’s the big thing, they don’t have to work all day, maybe an hour then they can cycle through, but we can get it done,” said Ellis.

Donations can be made  to LinC. Checks can be made out to Attention Numana Topeka, and sent to 405 Benton Hall, Washburn University, Topeka Kan.  For more information call 785-670-2117.