Throughout the course of the week, Kappa Sigma will host its annual Super Hungerfest inspired by the Super Bowl. While the Super Bowl is a great time to chill with your friends, hit up some cuties, and earn big bucks and bragging rights for picking out the winning team, there’s another side of it we don’t tend to notice. Next to Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl is the second most gluttonous day of the year. Kappa Sigma uses the Super Hungerfest to raise awareness and money for those who go hungry daily. We spoke to the president of Kappa Sigma, Stephen Scelfo, to get some details about the event and the fraternity as a whole.
Her Campus Adelphi: What inspired Kappa Sigma to begin the Super Hungerfest?
Stephen Scelfo: Super Hugerfest was founded in 2006 as a small community service project to raise money for the United Nations World Food Program. However, after attending a conference hosted by President Scott about hunger on Long Island, we became acutely aware of the food insecurity that existed right in our own backyard. Adelphi is located in one of the most prosperous counties in the country and still one of six children in Nassau go hungry. This inspired us to create an alliance with Island Harvest to stop the problem that was growing in our own neighborhood.
HCA: What is the purpose of the fast?
SS: The Purpose of Super Hungerfest is not only to help stop hunger on Long Island, but to raise awareness about an issue that often goes unnoticed. As students of Adelphi University, we may sometimes take for granted all of the luxuries in our lives. The fast is supposed to give us a glimpse into the eyes of those less fortunate, who go without food for long periods of time. Although it’s only for 24 hours it allows the brothers to truly connect with the mission of this event and to show the community that this is a very important issue on Long Island.
HCA: How does the Hungerfest work? What occurs during it?
SS: Super Hungerfest is a week long effort to help stop hunger on Long Island. It starts days before the kickoff party when the brothers go to different neighborhoods in Nassau County to spread the word about the event and to ask local businesses and neighbors to donate canned goods. We also have a table on campus telling the students about our event and how they can help us. The kickoff party is held the day before the Super Bowl and is the main event leading up to our fast. The purpose of the kickoff party is to educate the Adelphi community about hunger on Long Island and what we can do to stop it. After the party the brothers begin to fast until kick off. The next day the brothers return to the neighborhoods they visited to pick up any donations that our Nassau County neighbors left for us. We then deliver the food to an Island Harvest facility for distribution.
HCA: Now what happens during the kickoff?
SS: Every year we host the Kickoff party to educate the members of the Adelphi Community about hunger on Long Island. A speaker from Island Harvest comes to the event to speak about the issue and what Island Harvest does to help stop it. We will also have performances by Adelphi’s Acapella group Paws and Rewind and by our brothers Jibri Bercy (DJ Jibz), Gustavo Moscoso, and Xaviar Diaz.
HCA: Now your goal is to beat last year’s record collection of $2,518 and 2,895 pounds of non-perishable food for Island Harvest, how do you plan to kick it up a notch and beat the goal this year?
SS: This year our brothers have been tactically separated into teams based on where they are from and are given designated zones to go to collect donations. This will allow us to reach a larger area in a more organized way so that we can hopefully collect more cans and spread the word about our event even further. We’ve also contacted more businesses in Nassau County that have said they are willing to donate.
HCA: Are there any other events that Kappa Sigma have hosted for the community?
SS: Some of our other signature events include Sleep out for the Soldiers and Save or Shave. During Sleep Out for the Soldiers, we collect items that can be sent in care packages to our soldiers overseas and raise money for our national philanthropy Military Hero’s which helps veterans acclimate to civilian life. We’ve also had brothers volunteer at some of the VA Clinics on Long Island. Save or Shave is held at the Adelphi University Relay for Life event. People donate money to the American Cancer Society to see a brother of their choice shave their hair. The brother can either shave his hair or match the donations in his name to save it. We have also volunteered with Long Island Food not Bombs and the Nassau County chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
HCA: What are your favorite aspects of being president of a fraternity? What are some challenges?
SS: My favorite part of being the president of this amazing fraternity is seeing the brothers come together and give everything they have when we put on events such as Super Hungerfest. Helping the community is something we pride ourselves on and seeing a large group of people come together with such enthusiasm makes me proud to be a Kappa Sigma.
One of the biggest challenges I’ve had so far this year has been coming up with ways to reinvent our chapter. Most of the events that we organize and the things we do as a fraternity have been traditions over the years and have always lead to having a successful chapter. However, my goal as president is to keep pushing our chapter forward and to come up with new ways that we can become even more successful. One way we are doing that is by having informal meetings every month for brothers in each pledge class to discuss issues that sometimes don’t get brought up in chapter.
HCA: The recruiting process is starting up again! What does Kappa Sigma have planned coming up for that? What future events and projects do you have upcoming for Kappa Sigma?
SS: Recruitment is one of our favorite times of the year because it’s where we get to shape the future of our organization. We will be hosting some new events such as a Special Needs Basketball Game where well team up with the Nassau County PAL League to have some fun and do some good in the community. We also have “Night a thousand Nuggets”, Dodgeball, a video game night, and a Q & A session for the last night.
HCA: What are some future events and projects you have upcoming for Kappa Sigma?
SS: One of the bigger events that I’m looking forward to is “Sleep Out for the Soldiers.”We have food, games, raffles, and live music on the Waldo Hall quad all for a small donation to our national philanthropy Military Hero’s. This organization helps our veterans get back to normal civilian life when returning from combat. We also try and collect items to send overseas to our soldiers in care packages. At night we sleep out in tents on the quad to give up our own comfort out of respect for our heroes.