On March 5, more than 500 college students joined Nashville Mayor John Cooper, former President Bill Clinton, Clinton Foundation Vice Chair Chelsea Clinton, and Vanderbilt Vice Chancellor of Government and Community Relations Nathan Green for the CGI U Day of Action, a mass volunteer initiative to benefit local nonprofits.
With an emphasis on service projects addressing the needs of Nashville’s students and teachers, individuals who are food insecure, and indigenous people, 530 students participated in large-scale service projects for PENCIL, Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, and the Native American Indian Association, Inc.
Volunteers prepared 1,000 school kits for Metro Nashville Public Schools and its students, including neighborhood elementary schools Eakin and Carter-Lawrence and middle school Rose Park, through the service project with PENCIL, a nonprofit committed to meeting the needs of MNPS to ensure equitable access to education for all students. Those who volunteered with Second Harvest Food Bank’s mobile food pantry provided food to more than 250 individuals in need. An off-site volunteer opportunity with Native American Indian Association allowed students to participate in an environmental cleanup and tree-planting project at the site of the nonprofit’s future Cultural Center in Antioch.
The CGI U Day of Action was the culmination of the three-day Clinton Global Initiative University, hosted by Vanderbilt from March 3-5 and featuring dozens of speakers and hundreds of international students from across the globe.