Michigan University Lets You Donate Food to Pay Off Parking Tickets
The Northern Michigan University has recently devised a wonderful program, dubbed ‘Food 4 Fines’, which allows students to save some money. The nature of this program is very similar to other such efforts put in place for library or parking fines.
How it works is that rather than paying the specified amount to cover the parking ticket, students now have the option of donating food to the school’s pantry. This way, students get to increase their savings and the school has a reliable system in place to support its pantry. Not to mention the charitable spirit it’s promoting. The only condition is that only tickets issued after August 1st can be covered in this manner. All tickets written prior to this date need the relevant fines to be paid off.
Fines can be either reduced or eliminated completely on the basis of the food being donated. Fines up to $25 can be excused if the items being submitted to the pantry are diverse enough in nature. However, the school has made it clear that donations of ramen noodles are discouraged, despite their popularity among college students. This is likely because the school wants to provide healthier and more nutritious options to its student body.
The value of the items is assigned when they are delivered at the drop-off point. However, there are categories established at the Marquette campus, with the lower end of the range being $5 and the highest possible end being $25.
The tiers are as follows:
- Tier One – $5.00:
- Canned vegetables
- Canned fruits
- Kraft Mac & Cheese (1 box)
- 28 oz. shampoo
- Tier Two – $10.00:
- Instant oatmeal (6 pack box)
- Pancake mix
- Boxed cereal
- Syrup
- Tier Three – $15.00:
- 2-pack paper towel
- 4-pack toilet paper
- Chunky soup
- Canned ravioli
- Tier Four – $25.00:
- Combination of items
- 24 or more box of diapers (size 4,5, or 6)
27 November 2018 is the date for the next donation. A very pleasant coincidence is that it also happens to be the National Day of Giving. The timings are between 8 am and 5 pm for submitting donations.