International Students Making a Difference in Lives of Local Communities

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Return to Issue of Nov. 2, 2009

Two international students are among a group who volunteer their time for Kent State University’s partnership with Mobile Meals to deliver meals to the people who need them, while also helping the environment.

Mobile Meals, a nonprofit organization that provides meals to people of all ages and economic circumstances throughout Northeast Ohio, was founded in 1971. The organization provides meals to seniors, children, elderly and disabled individuals who have no one else to ensure that the recipient eats daily. Today, the group provides 2,500 meals and supplements each day to private homes and at dining centers.

Kent State has adopted the year-round program, but in an effort to be “greener” has made it motor-less. Kent State’s Motor-Less Mobile Meal group helps deliver meals by attaching small trailers that support the food to the back of bicycles, thus delivering the meals “motorlessly.”

The two freshman students, both from Nairobi, Kenya, are not just experiencing American society and culture by receiving a Kent State education, but are also using their free time volunteering and spreading goodwill within the city of Kent. Ted Otieno, an aeronautics major, and John Kamau, who is studying biology, both started at Kent State in the fall of 2009 and are happy to provide pedal power for the program. They welcome others to join their cause.

They meet at the Student Recreation and Wellness Center every Tuesday to the deliver meals. Ann Gosky, senior special assistant from the office of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, coordinates the students’ efforts. The project is supported by the staff of the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, who ensures that the bikes and trailers are in working order and road-ready.

“My best friend T.J. [Otieno] had met with Ann, and then told me about the Mobile Meals program,” Kamau says. “It sounded like fun.”

The people that Kamau and Otieno deliver to have signed up through Mobile Meals and have either paid for their meals or received the food through a government subsidy. Nine months out of the year, the students ride for about an hour to surrounding campus neighborhoods, such as Silver Oaks Apartments and the Four Seasons Retirement Home making the deliveries. During the winter months, however, the students make the deliveries by car.

The students do not do this for money or a grade but simply out of kindness.

“Helping older people is awesome; I love doing this,” Kamau says. “I do this because I hope that someone will deliver food to me when I get older.”

“In Kenya, families generally live close to each other and would take responsibility for providing meals … in America, family may be a distance away and not able to meet those needs,” Gosky says.

Kamau says he hopes to recruit more people to deliver the meals.

“If you have the free time to go to the Recreation Center and deliver food, it’s a good workout,” Kamau says.

Kamau adds that “you may even get cookies” from some of the recipients on the list, such as the Four Seasons Retirement Home.

For more information or to volunteer, e-mail Gosky at agosky@kent.edu or stop by the Enrollment Management and Student Affairs office in Room 250 of the Kent Student Center.

For more on the program, watch this week’s multimedia feature.

By Judd Bernardo

Return to Issue of Nov. 2, 2009