Sorority Sisters Donated 700 Backpacks and 6841 Food Items to Straight Street Revolution Ministry

A Pearl Perfect and Ivy Strong love for rendering Service To All Mankind fueled the nearly one thousand members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (AKA) from across Cluster V of the Sorority’s South Atlantic Region to donate 700 backpacks and 6841 food items to the Straight Street Revolution Ministry during their Cluster V Conference held at the Infinite Energy Center October 7 -8 in Duluth, Ga.

The Cluster V Conference was a two-day event themed “AKA Pearl Perfect and Ivy Strong”, in which the sorority sisters gathered to focus on the sorority’s international programmatic thrust, “Launching New Dimensions of Service” (LNDS), and also to implement LNDS initiatives at the local level. Members supported the “Think HBCU” initiative and participated in a “Backpack Love” community service project under the leadership of South Atlantic Regional Director Sharon Brown Harriott.

Why a Backpack Love service project? It’s that grumbling in your stomach that you get that makes you weak, jittery and unable to concentrate. While many can easily access nutritious food to calm pangs of hunger, far too many millions of people cannot. Far too many children and adults go hungry.

The Straight Street Revolution Ministry’s “Backpack Love program” feeds 1,440 families weekly using the backpack system in partnership with schools in both Gainesville City and Hall County School Systems. Each backpack provides food to feed a family of five and includes: two breakfasts, two lunches, three dinners and snacks so that children and families do not have to go hungry over the weekends when schools are not providing meals.

South Atlantic Regional Director Sharon Brown Harriott could not be prouder of the support this service project received from her sisters of Cluster V. Speaking of Cluster V, Shevawn Broxton Young serves as the Cluster V Coordinator. This year’s Cluster V Conference was hosted by the Lambda Iota Omega Chapter of Gainesville, Ga. and the Rho Eta Chapter of Brenau University. Cheryl Gay Brown served as Cluster V Conference Chairman; Amanda Washington, and FeFe Perry Sirmans served as conference Co-Chairmen; Alphia Wills was the Honorary Chairman and Priscilla Collins served as the conference’s Service Committee Chairman.

Georgia is one of three states, including Florida and South Carolina that make up the South Atlantic Region of Alpha Kappa Alpha. The region is comprised of 165 graduate and undergraduate chapters and 10,000 members. Cluster V is one of, and the largest of eight clusters of the South Atlantic Region. It is comprised of the metro-Atlanta, North Georgia and Middle Georgia graduate and undergraduate chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (AKA) is an international service organization that was founded on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1908. It is the oldest Greek letter organization established by African-American college-educated women. Alpha Kappa Alpha is comprised of more than 290,000 members in 993 graduate and undergraduate chapters in the United States, Liberia, the Bahamas, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Germany, South Korea, Bermuda, Japan, Canada, South Africa and Dubai. Led by International President Dorothy Buckhanan Wilson, L.H.D., Alpha Kappa Alpha is often hailed as “America’s premier Greek-letter organization for African-American women.”

For more information on Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and its programs, visit AKA1908.com.