Today over 200 students, faculty, staff and alumni will reach out to the surrounding cities as part of Stanford’s first Community Partnership Day. Organized by the Office of Public Affairs, the event will consist of numerous projects touching on a variety of community service opportunities — including food drives, habitat restoration and tutoring.

Participants will be working with organizations such as Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, Ecumenical Hunger Program and the Redwood City Education Foundation, doing service projects ranging from working with middle school students, preparing and serving lunch to the homeless in Palo Alto and weeding around a lake in Mountain View.

“We tried to hit on all different types of community service,” said Anna Wilson, manager and event coordinator of Community Partnership Day.

The Office of Public Affairs has organized Community Day, a free University open house held in April, for the past four years and will now hold Community Day and Community Partnership Day on alternating years.

“We wanted a day that was an alternative to Community Day, which is very expensive,” Wilson said. “We started thinking about Community Partnership Day over the summer.” According to the Community Day Web site, the alternating events will complement each other well, as one invites the community to Stanford and the other sends Stanford out to the community.

The event will host between 10 and 12 projects, most of which will happen off-campus on Friday. There will be a food drive for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties occurring at various points on campus, for those who cannot or do not want to leave. Additionally, on Saturday, there will be an all-day renovation of a local community venue with Re-Building Together Peninsula in honor of National Rebuilding Day.

Faculty and staff members who participate in the event during work hours may be able to receive compensation for up to four hours. Participants will meet at the Oval and be transported by bus to their project sites.

Organizers of Community Partnership Day hope that it will help foster long-lasting relationships between Stanford and its neighbors.