North American Food Drive
Brothers Feeding Others
 The North American Food Drive (NAFD) is a labor intensive, highly visible, incredibly rewarding philanthropy, designed to raise food for local communities, while promoting Lambda Chi Alpha. For many years, local chapters did their own philanthropies and Lambda Chi Alpha had no officially designated “international” outreach. The official food drive started in 1993, with efforts coordinated and tracked internationally. The event is typically held on the first Saturday in November.
The focus of the NAFD is for all chapters to participate in the same event on the same day. In 1993, 149 chapters took part in the first event. More than 250,000 pounds of food was raised for local food banks on that day, and more than 8,000 brothers participated. Since then the NAFD has continued to grow and several chapters now collect individually more than 100,000 pounds of food.
In the months leading up to the food drive, members of the Western Michigan University chapter participate in events including passing out grocery bags with a flyer and a 48-hour sit at the WMU flagpoles to collect donations. Locally, the majority of the food is raised through monetary donations from companies all across southern Michigan.
Over the past five years, the WMU chapter has raised over 75,000lbs of food for the needy in the community. This year, our goal is 60,000 lbs of food. All proceeds are donated to the Loaves and Fishes food bank of Kalamazoo.
The advantages of the NAFD are numerous. Chapter brothers participate in a hands-on event with the immediate satisfaction of collecting food from the local community for a worthy charity. The synergy of all of Lambda Chi Alpha's chapters participating helps generate local, regional, and sometimes national and international media coverage for the event. Finally, Lambda Chi Alpha rewards leading chapters with awards and recognition at the General Assemblies and Leadership Seminars.
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