A small group of Penn State students hope to provide extra meals to residents living in nearby shelters — with help from Simmons Dining Hall.

Wanting to save food from being wasted and help the State College community, four female students began coordinating a food donation project, which will bring extra food from Simmons to State College shelters and housing centers.

The project was in operation two years ago, but Schreyer Honors College volunteers, including Tressa Gibbard (sophomore-environmental resource management) and Lori Mitchell (senior-art/French/art history), hope to revive the service project this semester.

Although they have not delivered any food yet, Gibbard, the project's official coordinator, said, "My goal was to have it started already."

She hopes to involve everyone, not just Schreyer scholars, in the project. Any interested volunteers are invited to meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Simmons Hall's piano lounge to discuss the project.

Because most of the people who have expressed interest in volunteering do not have cars here, Gibbard said, volunteers who can drive on a semi-regular basis are needed.

The cost of gas would be the volunteers' contribution. "It would be out of the goodness of their hearts," she said.

Mitchell was involved in the project as a driver during her sophomore year. Last year, she studied abroad and upon returning, Mitchell said, she learned the project "had kind of disintegrated."

As a result, she wanted to see the project come back to life. She became a steering committee member to help head up the service project.

"I really liked the project. You felt like you were actually contributing to the community," Mitchell said.

Karen Anderson, manager of food services at Simmons Dining Hall, said she supports the project.

"Simmons, in the past, has participated in a project like this. Typically it's student-driven," said Anderson, adding that the volunteers provide the manpower and the automobiles to transport the food.

Simmons donates surplus food from dinner, Anderson explained, which typically includes items such as full pans of lasagna, partial loaves of bread and extra cookies.

When the dining hall has extra food, volunteers will take the food — placed in a large insulated metal container to keep it warm — and transport it to local shelters.

Some of the shelters Mitchell and Gibbard hope to involve in the project are Strawberry Fields Inc., 403 S. Allen St., Centre House, 217 E. Nittany Ave., Stormbreak Runaway Shelter, 143 W. Fairmont Ave., and Women's Resource Center, 140 W. Nittany Ave.

"It's really great. We appreciate it," said Bobbi Bronstein, program manager at Centre House, a shelter that accommodates up to 20 residents.

"We used to get it on a weekly basis (from Penn State), but we were overwhelmed," Bronstein said. Because the students often brought an abundance of food and because Centre House receives weekly donations from other organizations, Bronstein told the women organizing the project that the shelter could use extra food about once a month.

Centre House uses what it can when the food arrives. The remainder is frozen for later use, Bronstein said.