La Asociacion de Estudiantes Latinos (AdEL) or the Latino Student Association at Temple University held an empanada sale and donated the proceeds to Haiti relief efforts after the devastation caused by Hurricane Matthew. AdEL set up shop in the lobby of The View residence hall between the hours of 9 PM and midnight, and sold close to 80 empanadas to hungry students as they passed by.
President of AdEL, Karla Duran, said it was her idea to sell the empanadas later in the evening as appose to during the day because she knew students would be hungry while studying for midterms.
“We thought that around this time, people tend to get really hungry. And it’s midterms, so, like, anything to take a break. And we just thought people coming in and out of The View will just be like ‘Oh my God, empanadas!’ You don’t see this every day, so we thought it was a great opportunity and we just took it,” she said.
The org sold out of empanadas within the first hour.
AdEL reached out to Unicef, a non-profit humanitarian organization, to connect them to Haiti victims of Hurricane Matthew. Duran said after the hurricane, she didn’t see a lot of organizations around campus doing much to help out. She said as a minority organization, she felt it was important for them to get involved.
“Even if we’re not Haitian, we should help. It doesn’t affect just Haiti, it affects everybody,” Duran said.
AdEL’s Community Service Director, Jesus Alvarado, is a resident at The View and helped to connect their org with the building manager to book the space for the sale. Alvarado believes even though the hurricane hit Haiti in late September, the efforts to help out should never end.
“Anybody who can help should help. This was one of the worst hurricane’s that could have ever happened and it went directly on top of Haiti. Just the amount of support that they need, it’s not going to end anytime soon.”
Duran and Alvarado both say they plan on doing another empanada sale in the future, as well as collaborating with Temple’s Haitian Student Organization to collect clothing and toiletries as well.
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