Update….

VALLEY CITY, N.D. (AP) – Students at Valley City State

University have picked more than 37,500 pounds of squash that will be distributed to food banks.

About 190 students participated in the squash-picking effort

at an area farm on Tuesday.

The activity is part of Valley City State University’s Learning

to Live program that’s required for all first-year-students.

Reported earlier….

From VCSU…

Valley City, ND  (KCSi-T.V. News)  —  A group of approximately 190 freshmen from Valley City State University will harvest fresh produce from an area farm that will be distributed to 278  food shelves, soup kitchens, shelters and other charitable feeding programs supplied by the Great Plains Food Bank, a program of Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota.

The project is part of VCSU’s “Learning to Live/Living to Learn” (L2L) program.

 The event will take place from   9:00 am – 11:30 am, Tuesday, September 25, 2012, approximately 10 miles north of Valley City.  

Each Fall semester all new students at VCSU take part in an orientation program known as Learning to Live-Living to Learn (L2L) in which upper class students serve as mentors for groups of new students and assist students in the transition to college.

L2L topics include team building, orientation to campus services, adjusting to college, substance abuse issues, academic advising, learning styles, stress management, and paying for college.

 A component of the Learning to L2L program is a community service project that will allow the entire freshman class to participate as a group and make a significant contribution to the city or the region. In previous years, students have painted fire hydrants throughout Valley City and worked on flood clean-up efforts.

For the third year in a row, the L2L community service project will involve harvesting fresh produce (primarily squash) from a local farm that will be distributed to food shelves throughout North Dakota. Last year, the project yielded approximately 25 tons of produce.