Run to your kitchen cabinet, grab some food and put it in the campus mail by the end of this week! Or run in the 5K Running of the Turkeys to help raise money for the Yolo Food Bank! (You can walk the 5K route, if you prefer.)

And we haven’t forgotten about pets this holiday season. Students and other volunteers from the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital are once again seeking monetary donations for the Mercer Clinic Holiday Pet Baskets Program, providing food, treats and other supplies to pets belonging to homeless people.

• Mail Services Holiday Food Drive — This annual collection wraps up this Friday (Nov. 18). Please leave donations with your unit’s outgoing mail. The Davis campus collection goes to the Yolo Food Bank, while the Sacramento collection goes to Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services. Here’s a list of suggested items to donate:

• Canned, ready-to-eat meals
• Canned meat, fish and soups
• Canned vegetables and tomato products
• Dry beans (any type)
• Enriched rice and pasta
• Ramen
• Boxed macaroni and cheese
• Canned fruit (in juice)
• Peanut butter (plastic container)
• Iron-rich cereal (45 percent or more of daily value)
• Powdered milk
• Fruit juice (100 percent, in plastic containers 48 ounces or smaller)
• Powdered milk formula
• Similac baby food

• Running of the Turkeys — Physics professor Lloyd Knox is organizing a campus team for the Yolo Food Bank’s Thanksgiving Day fundraiser for the fifth consecutive year — and this year’s team has a new name: The Running Coupling Constants. But, he said, you don’t have to be affiliated with the physics department or know the meaning of “running coupling constants” to run with this team — or to donate! He’s set a team fundraising goal of $4,400, and notes that all registration fees and donations will be matched until the goal is met. The match will come from Knox and his physics faculty colleagues Richard Scalettar and David Wittman.

The registration page is here. To join The Running Coupling Constants, click on “Team” in the index on the left-hand side of the page, then scroll or search. If you're donating to the overall fundraising effort, you can trigger The Running Coupling Constants match by donating through the team’s fundraising page. (Enter your donation amount and click “Continue.")

Contact Knox by email with questions, or if you’re interested in starting your own team.

• Mercer Clinic Holiday Pet Baskets Program — Students and other volunteers organize this program annually in connection with their Mercer Clinic for the Pets of the Homeless, which is open once a month near Sacramento Loaves & Fishes. The baskets have been handed out every December since 1995. In recent years, donations also go toward winter coats and sweaters for dogs. Donations can be made online, or by mail to Mercer Clinic Holiday Pet Baskets; University of California, Davis; 1460 Drew Ave., Suite 100; Davis 95618 (make checks payable to “Mercer Clinic Holiday Pet Baskets”).

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