INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY COMMITTED TO CHANGING LIVES AND COMMUNITIES – NEMCC CHAPTER PARTICIPATES IN PROJECT GRADUATION – Ben Tucker, president of Northeast Mississippi Community College’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa and Cade Wilkerson, co-vice president of scholarship, both of Booneville recently delivered canned goods to Lanette Wold at the Prentiss Baptist Association.

Also pictured is Dr. Ray Harris, Booneville, advisor. Project Graduation: Feed a Body, Feed a Mind, is a Phi Theta Kappa civic engagement program that encourages community college students to donate canned goods and books to local relief agencies and literacy organizations. The program focuses on the battle against the social issues of hunger and low literacy rates. In an effort to impact communities internationally, Phi Theta Kappa chapters in over 500 community colleges in the United States, Canada, Germany, Saipan, and Guam committed to changing lives and communities last year through Project Graduation. Since the launch of Project Graduation in 2002, more than 220,000 food items and 190,000 books have been collected and given to worthy organizations.

Recent statistics indicate that approximately 9.6 million United States residents go to bed hungry each night. An additional 36.6 million Americans are food insecure, meaning they do not have adequate supplies of food to lead a healthy lifestyle and are at risk of going hungry. Because of the increased number of hungry citizens, food pantries and shelters nationwide have reported shortages in their supplies of food. In a recent report, 26.6% of community agencies cited shortages of cereal, rice, and pasta products. Almost 20% said they would need more canned goods in order to support the people depending on them for food.

Northeast’s Iota Zeta chapter is a five-star chapter, the highest rating a chapter can receive, The chapter was also named a Top 100 chapter for 2007-08.