[hoosier]

the gist of this is not "Is public service good?" It is.

The gist is should it be required? It should not.

If you go to a private school, and they publish the requirements in advance, it's your choice - enroll or go someplace else.

If you go to a public school (elem., high sch., college) and the government/administration requires you to do public service, it is unpaid servitude (usually a part of the common hazing definition).

If LXA wants to do public service, and collect food, I love it, and I hope they gets lots of good publicity. If they tell prospects/members in advance that "we are all going to participate in collecting food", they have made it a choice: "Don't join if you are against collecting food."

The next step is for the public school to publish it's list of "approved" public service projects. These liberals will probably say it's OK to "volunteer" at the abortion clinic, but not OK to "volunteer" teaching an NRA gun safety class.

And finally, I think LXA should hire an outside group (maybe Arthur Anderson - they need the work) to audit their food collection to prevent "inadvertent over-counting" of results and especially to prevent members/pledges from eating the food. Some of the local LXAs seem to be getting a lttle plump.