Each semester we find ourselves with an abundance of meals and points that go unused. A fairly new and growing group within the Hunger and Homelessness program in the Waltham Group-Brandeis Be Our Guest-has come up with an ingenious way for the Brandeis community to give back to the less fortunate in the greater Waltham area using extra guest meals.

"There are a lot of things that contributed to my thinking about BBOG, [and] one of them was that people just don't use their guest meals, which means wasted money, and in a lot of cases it's also a lot of wasted food. And people are always looking for easy and lightweight ways to donate," says Elizabeth Stoker '13, who initiated BBOG in spring 2010 .

Stoker immediately started talking with Lucas Malo, the director of community service at Brandeis, about her idea. Malo helped her get started by introducing her to the coordinators of the Waltham Group's Hunger and Homelessness program.

BBOG "is a program that allows students to donate their guest meals, and Aramark gives us food depending on how [many] meals we gather," says Andrew Mandel '11, one of the Waltham Group's three Hunger and Homelessness coordinators.

Meals donated to BBOG come from students who send their Brandeis student ID numbers to BBOG and specify how many meals they wish to donate. BBOG then sends this information in a spreadsheet to Aramark, the provider of dining services at Brandeis.

"Aramark has hired some new people recently and it has been great working with them," Mandel says, noting that prior to the change in staff, it wasn't entirely smooth sailing for the members of this up-and-coming group.

"People think that Aramark is this evil corporation, but they've been so helpful and we would have never been able to go along with this program without their support. I want people to know that they are doing a lot of good and having a lot of impact on the Waltham community," Mandel added.

The initial proposals for the group underwent a number of changes before the plans were finalized, and Stoker explained how difficult it was to set up BBOG as it is now. At first, the plan was to bring homeless people to Brandeis, but the idea was shot down due to the numerous liability and legal issues that would ensue.

The next plan was to go buffet-style, where they would take the food back to the Waltham Common, cook it up and let anybody come eat, but that idea was also rejected. "Weather, food and safety were some of the concerns brought up, so that got vetoed as well," Stoker says.

Eventually, BBOG decided to visit and help out at homeless shelters, where they are able to maintain consistent relationships with the places and people they visit.

With seven current members, BBOG's accomplishments are impressive despite its small size. "We have a good dedicated core of BBOG members; they're there every time we need them-totally committed," Stoker says of the group.

"When we do go to serve food, we have more than enough people to help," Mandel says. "We're not turning people away if they're interested," Stoker says.

Despite being a fairly new group on campus, BBOG seems to have gotten positive responses and plenty of people who are psyched and more than happy to donate meals.

"There's just so much food but so little time. We get e-mails from people wanting to donate, and we always have to turn some down," Stoker says, explaining that BBOG is not constantly in service and therefore isn't always in a collection period. There also are a limited number of homeless shelters nearby that they can access frequently.

BBOG's main partner is the Community Day Center of Waltham. A day shelter is different from a homeless shelter in that it doesn't close during the day and instead lets its patrons utilize its various services such as counseling, career resources, food and even computers.

Last semester BBOG collected over 200 meals in only 2 weeks. "In a very short period of time, we had a staggering number of people who were wiling to give all their five guest meals," Stoker says.

"We basically went around to [the] Usdan [Student Center] and Sherman [Dining Hall] asking people if they wanted to donate their meals to charity. ... We canvassed, mail-boxed and we put up a lot of fliers in dorms," she continues.

"Part of BBOG that is also exciting is that it's also about relationships and friendships," Stoker says, making this evident by describing the management structure of the group.

"We don't have a hierarchical structure- there's no president of BBOG, no king of BBOG. ... Anyone can meet with Aramark, everyone has access to our e-mail account and anyone can make decisions and commitments. Its just all consensus-based-everyone's involved," Stoker says.

BBOG plans to make a trip next week to the Community Day Center of Waltham to cook and commune with its residents. BBOG also plans to host a points drive towards the end of the semester, during which students can donate their unused points to collect food items like energy bars, trail mix, snacks, etc.

"I know that a lot of people think that [the] Waltham Group at Brandeis is a huge commitment ... but BBOG doesn't require ... a gigantic commitment. That's really all it takes-one afternoon you can be a part of BBOG," Stoker says.

"When you give people power and when you give them control and ownership and responsibility, people give back a lot, and that has been the case with BBOG volunteers, they give a lot back. Because the program is just as much theirs as anybody else's."

Editor's note: Elizabeth Stoker '13 is a Forum staff writer for the Justice.