The Christian Legal Society at the UNM School of Law organized a faculty and staff bake-off to benefit the Roadrunner Food Bank.
The Christian Legal Society has been a tradition at UNM for at least 20 years, said Katrina Richards, president of CLS.
Many UNM alumni who were involved with the Christian Legal Society now practice law professionally, she said.
In the past few years, however, Richards said CLS meetings consisted of only two or three people.
"We really got it started up again last semester," she said.
CLS hosts weekly Bible studies that are not just for those enrolled in the School of Law.
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She said CLS invites medical students and undergraduate students to join as well.
Richards and CLS organized the faculty and staff bake sale with the help of several other on-campus student organizations, such as The Jewish Law Student Association, Financial Literacy Program, Women's Law Caucus and Environmental Law Society. "I think that a number of groups deserve a lot of credit for setting us up to raise money for the homeless," said Norman Bay, a law professor and entrant in the bake-off.
The event had 14 entrants from the School of Law faculty and staff.
"It's really great that the students were able to take the time and raise money for such a good cause, particularly as these economic times are so tough for so many families," Bay said.
Event attendants donated nonperishable food items in order to vote for their favorite dish. The food items, along with a $300 donation, were sent to the Roadrunner Food Bank.
The food bank serves 240,000 New Mexicans annually through 600 partner agencies and six regional agencies, spokeswoman Sonya Warwick said.
Warwick said food drives are becoming increasingly important as the market sours.
"Particularly now that the economy has turned, we strongly encourage communities to get involved," she said. "If we were able to get people to donate more products, we would try to target those areas that we can't feed."
Warwick said that in past years, the food bank received 80 percent of its food and funds from donations and purchased 20 percent from wholesale distributors.
"Now, it's flip-flopped," she said. "It's 20 percent donated and 80 percent we've purchased. We would like to rely fully on donations, but we know that's not realistic, so we do purchase products from wholesalers and distributors to help feed the hungry."
Warwick said many of the food bank's resources are stretched even farther because they are being shipped to help Hurricane Ike victims in Texas and Louisiana.
