Coats with Heart, a winter clothing donation drive ending Friday, kicks off next week’s National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.

This week marks the second anniversary of Coats with Heart, a program where people donate winter clothing to participating groups. The winter clothing drive is among several events held in conjunction with National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, listed at bit.ly/1xj27Sb, which include a documentary viewing and food drive.

“Huskie Service Scholars is the sponsoring program,” said Kathryn Olson, an employee of the Office of Student Engagement and Experiential Learning. “Students who are in this program will throughout the year work together for community service on campus and they will get a tuition waiver for the completion of 300 hours of community service.”

Last year, Coats with Heart participants donated more than 180 coats to Feed’em Soup, a community project aimed at serving meals to anyone regardless of their ability to pay.

Ashley Pales, employee of the Office of Student Engagement and Experiential Learning, said the donations from this year’s drive will be given to the DeKalb Area Women’s Center, a nonprofit women empowerment organization, to be passed on to people in the area.

“It’s nice to have them give it off because they can see the impacts that they have on the area,” Olson said. “Other organizations are also coming to go ahead and distribute some more of the coats elsewhere.”

Participating organizations help by dropping off their collected items at Altgeld Hall. The team with the most donations will get an award from the Office of Student Engagement and Experiential Learning.