Sororities ‘extreme coupon’ for charity

BOWLING GREEN, O.— With stacks of coupons in hand, 40 Bowling Green State University sorority members set out March 23 for a little “extreme” shopping for charity. Their purchases will help restock the food pantry at Nightingales Harvest, which helps low income families who are battling cancer.

Casey Greene, a criminal justice major from Dayton and Pan-Hellenic vice president of service, came up with the idea. “Anything that deals with cancer is close to my heart,” Green explained, “I lost my sister to cancer.”

Green met Lisa Kronbach-Eisenbach, the founder of Nightingales Harvest, during the Service Learning Fair and says she just fell in love with her mission. “I wanted something different this year for the sororities and they seemed to really enjoy the hands on aspect.”

“A lot of chapters do food philanthropy. I really wanted to teach them this skill so they could save money.”

Each chapter received a $150 gift card, donated by Kronbach-Eisenbach and the help of a professional extreme coupon shopper. They also clipped a massive amount of coupons.

“She does this with a lot of organizations,” Greene said. “She has the money to fill the pantry, but not the manpower needed to extreme coupon.”

After stops at Kroger and Giant Eagle, the group’s total bill came to $1,709, but thanks to coupons, they only spent $851, which comes out to a savings of $858.

“We bought so much, her pickup truck was filled to the max,” said Greene. “A few of us are going to the food pantry next week to see how full it is.”

Kronbach-Eisenbach met with the group last month to teach them the ins and outs of extreme couponing. Greene is hoping that knowledge will help the chapters with their other philanthropic projects.

“A lot of chapters do food philanthropy. I really wanted to teach them this skill so they could save money.”

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(Posted March 29, 2012 )