The young men of Sigma Phi Epsilon worked in two shifts Friday night to cook, prepare and package at least 1,530 meals to be distributed to Columbus and Cleveland area shelters the following day.

“This is the second year we’ve done this, and this year we have really improved on the quality of food and the number of meals we were able to make,” said Dave Yeh, a sophomore in marketing and the event coordinator.

“Local businesses like SBX, CollegeTown, Men’s Warehouse and a few others donated money for the project, along with money we made through fund-raisers,” Yeh said.

The project was brought to Sigma Phi Epsilon’s attention last year when Scott Phillips joined the fraternity as a freshman. His family’s restaurant had been pursuing the project for years, and Phillips wanted to use the fraternity to put it on a larger scale.

“My grandma started this in Cleveland in 1993 at her restaurant, Guarino’s,” said Phillips, now a sophomore in political science and vice president of Sigma Phi Epsilon.

“She started out doing 200 meals on Christmas and Thanksgiving. I took over my freshman year of high school, and we started producing around 1,000 to 1,500 meals. Then I brought the idea to Columbus when I came here,” Phillips said.

On Saturday the men split up into six driving shifts – three to deliver 430 meals in Columbus and three to deliver 1,100 meals in Cleveland – to churches and shelters the Salvation Army helped them find.

“Nationally, our fraternity supports hands-on community service over philanthropy, which usually involves just handing over money to a project,” Phillips said.

Sungmoon Shiam, a junior in business, enjoys the hands-on service.

“When we do community service I actually get to participate in helping people,” Shiam said.

“This is a representation of what greek life is about, though it’s not usually what gets recognized,” Phillips said. “This sort of thing gets the attention of the city, and it makes the university look good.”

The fraternity plans to continue and expand upon the Fight to End Hunger in upcoming years.

“Next year, we want to expand on this service theme. Maybe a Fight to End Hunger week, bringing speakers in and producing even more meals,” Yeh said.