Food Pantry aims to feed campus community
Jacob Summerville/The Lion’s Roar
Any member of the campus community can utilize the Food Pantry during its hours Monday through Thursday. The Food Pantry is always accepting donations.
Located in Room 109 of McGehee Hall, the Food Pantry offers students, faculty and staff free groceries and toiletries.
According to Feeding America, one in six people in Louisiana faces a struggle with hunger, totaling over 750,000 state citizens. Students nation-wide face food insecurity, with the U.S. Government Accountability Office stating that 11% of households with a student at a four-year university encounter this issue.
Under the watch of the Multicultural and International Student Affairs Office, the goal of the pantry is to provide perishable and non-perishable goods to the university community.
Claudio Franc, a graduate student and student-worker for MISA, helps run the Food Pantry, and he explained it’s significance to the campus.
“It provides food and other resources for those students suffering from food insecurity and provides them with the peace of mind needed to know that we will always be able to provide them with something to eat,” said Franc.
Those who visit the pantry can choose as many as 20 items each week.
Through a donation by the Wesley Center, the Food Pantry has a fridge, which diversifies the types of items students can donate and pick up.
“We can take anything that isn’t quickly perishable and store it in the fridge and/or freezer for the students to be able to take and use,” explained Franc.
Franc shared that the items that the pantry are in most need of include rice, chili, jelly, cereal, soups, crackers, pasta sauce, boxed meals, pasta, beans and canned meats – any and every donation is still accepted, however.
“If anyone wants to donate physical items to the Food Pantry, they can email us so that we can coordinate a pick-up of the items,” said Franc. “Otherwise, anyone can donate via the blue ‘Donate Here’ button on the left side of the Food Pantry page.”
Students and faculty can also deliver their donations directly to the Food Pantry.
The Food Pantry is open on Mondays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 12 – 5 p.m., and via appointment on Fridays.
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Jacob Summerville, a history and political science major, has worked at The Lion's Roar since September 2017. A native of Greenwell Springs, LA, Jacob...
