As customers shared pizzas with friends at Mother Bear’s Pizza, people also donated to the American Civil Liberties Union.
The IU Feminist Student Association sponsored a dine-and-donate for the ACLU at Mother Bear’s Wednesday. FSA received $4 for every large pizza purchased with a printed coupon from both the east and west Mother Bear’s locations. The coupon applied to inside dining, delivery and carry-out.
Junior Alexis Davis, who is the fundraising chair for FSA, said the group chose the ACLU for the dine-and-donate event because of the way the organization challenged President Trump’s executive order on immigration. The immigration ban, which barred people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States, is now on hold after a decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The ACLU has won court orders against the immigration ban in New York, Massachusetts and Maryland. The ACLU also received a record $24.1 million in donations in the weekend after Trump issued the immigration ban, according to the ACLU’s website.
“It was a great demonstration that the ACLU is going to fight the fight for equality, regardless of what equality might be defined as in certain situations,” Davis said.
FSA’s objectives expand beyond women’s rights, IU junior and FSA director of social affairs Margaret Hoffman said.
“Your identity is more than your gender,” Hoffman said. “You can’t separate things like race, class and ethnicity from gender.”
FSA is focused on issues that cover all aspects of identity, she said.In addition to the immigration ban, Hoffman said she is concerned with the Trump administration’s approach to illegal immigration and reproductive freedom.
Davis said the ACLU’s response to the immigration ban demonstrated it is not backing down.
“We discussed how we were personally going to stand for equality no matter what, so to see a more powerful organization like the ACLU stand in that same place, we felt that was where we needed to put our support,” Davis said.
Because FSA has limited influence as a campus organization, Davis said it needs to put its support behind organizations that can help make a change. Dine-and-donate events are an effective way to reach out to the IU and Bloomington communities, Davis said.
“You’re not setting up a table outside Ballantine hoping that you catch a crowd of a hundred people leaving class,” Davis said. “You can appeal to the Bloomington community because anyone can find time in their day to come in and participate.”
One of the reasons FSA likes to sponsor dine-and-donate events is because it appeals to college students who have little to no income because they are also receiving food as they donate, Hoffman said.
Ruthie Williamson, a Ph.D. candidate in music theory, said she specifically came to Mother Bear’s to donate to the ACLU.
“I love what the ACLU is doing, and I love Mother Bear’s, so a chance to eat pizza and also donate to the ACLU is great,” Williamson said.
At the time of publication, FSA had not yet counted how much money they had raised for the ACLU.
