A donated Pioneer Valley Transit Authority bus will be stationed on the University of Massachusetts campus today and tomorrow, collecting an assortment of donations from students, staff and faculty for the 11th annual “Fill-A-Bus” event.

“Fill-A-Bus” is part of a University-wide effort to completely fill a transit bus with non-perishable food items, new toys, clothing, household and other non-food items such as toiletries and paper products.

“Typically, this is a fall event – around Thanksgiving – but this year we are hosting it in the spring to see if we can collect more donations now as students prepare to move home for the summer,” said Jennifer A. Donovan, events and office coordinator.

In recent years, the event brought in as much as 500 pounds of collected food donations – a figure that coordinators of the event hope to surpass.

“We are hoping that this year will be more successful as we are collecting at a time when many students will want to lighten their load and hopefully donate these extra items to this worthy event,” said Donovan.

Alpha Phi Omega, a fraternity that is part of the Kappa Omicron chapter at UMass, is helping to host the event and will staff the bus during the week.

Besides the bus, students can help by organizing to collect donations in dorms, within Registered Student Organizations, fraternities, sororities and other various sites around campus.

All collected donations will be delivered to the Amherst Survival Center on Thursday, the last day for donations. The Amherst Survival Center provides clothing, food and hot meals to needy families and individuals free of charge. Volunteers will be needed to help transport the donations to the center. According to Donovan, depending on the success of the event and the number of people who are helping to unload, it volenteer time should only take about an hour. Interested students should call 545-2015 for detailed information.

The PVTA bus will be stationed outside of the Student Union today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the same time tomorrow at the Southwest Horseshoe in order to collect more donations.

“Fill-A-Bus” is sponsored by the UMass Office of Community Service Learning at Commonwealth College. Each year, the UMass Office of Community Service Learning at Commonwealth College sponsors community service fairs, one-day service events, the annual “Fill-A-Bus” event and the Chancellor’s Community Service Awards.