A student on Nov. 6, 2024 in the Skyline room at the Student Center South preparing one of the winter care packages for the homeless of Houston. | Raphael Fernandez/The Cougar

Last Wednesday, the UH Metropolitan Volunteer Program hosted a charity event to create winter care packages for people without homes in the Houston area. 

MVP collaborated with First Year Programs- College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the National Residence Hall Honorary.

The event is geared towards providing important items for homeless people in Houston as the year gears towards the holidays.

The items include custom pillows, goody bags, socks, body care products and clothing. These are aimed to assist those in need when cold weather starts to hit.

The event was held in the Skyline room at the Student Center South, where students gathered to assist MVP in making these bags.

“We will be packing socks and gloves and then we’re also going to make pillowcases,” said MVP hunger and homelessness chair, and management information systems senior Oluwadamilola Lambo. “Then, we’re going to go ahead and donate those to different organizations in the Houston community.”

By the end of the night, students had made over 150 care packages to be sent out.

These care packages won’t directly go to homeless people. Rather, MVP partners with organizations for the event to send these packages out as soon as possible. 

Volunteer students on Nov. 6, 2024 in the Skyline room at the Student Center South decorating for the winter care packages for the homeless of Houston. | Raphael Fernandez/The Cougar

“Right now, one of the organizations that we’re going to be partnering with is SEARCH,” Lambo said. “They are an organization in Houston, and they work with homeless individuals to find them homes as well as provide housing, food and general stuff.” 

The event also partnered with other student organizations at the University to make the night as successful as possible.

Organizations like Advancement Ambassadors gave a helping hand doing a social service event for the first time with MVP.

“Advancement Ambassadors has student ambassadors that are connected to donors, alumni and other philanthropy-type events,” said supply chain management senior Michelle Chen. “This brings more awareness about philanthropy and alumni events to the undergraduate students.”

Members of MVP on Nov. 6, 2024, in the Skyline room at the Student Center South preparing and decorating the winter care packages for the homeless of Houston. | Raphael Fernandez/The Cougar

The Ambassadors brought around 20 of their own people to the event, adding to the already growing number of volunteers.

MVP had a lot of people come in because the event was on campus, making it easier for students to participate and contribute, Lambo said.

Students would keep arriving all throughout the event, and then they were tasked with designing bags and distributing items evenly to each bag.

“I don’t have an exact count, but I think we have at least 50 students right now and there might be more as we speak,” Lambo said. “It’s always nice having a lot of people come and try to help the Houston community.”

Student participation is extremely important for charity events like this, mainly to ease the workload and process. 

MVP holds charity events like these weekly, with the goal of bringing students together for a selfless cause, whether that be rallying for homeless people, children or people without a stable source of food.

“We do these service nights every month because it’s hard for students to actually go to a service event during classes at 2 p.m., everyone’s busy doing their own thing,” said MVP Health and Wellness Chair and kinesiology senior Eric Martinez. “So we just wanted to make it be more accessible to everyone.”

Not only does MVP want to communicate the needs for volunteering, they want to communicate why people should want it.

For MVP, it is their mission to bring the knowledge of how to help others not just students, but everyone around Houston.

“It starts off with small things like just picking up a simple piece of trash, and builds a bigger impact,” Martinez said. “We just want to transform campus to be community service based and transmit to everyone that volunteering is not a sacrifice, instead it is a privilege to serve others.” 

news@thedailycougar.com

—
“UH’s MVP assembles winter care packages for people without housing” was originally posted on The Cougar