Newswise — LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 12, 2014) — Most people probably don't think of a food bank being located on a college campus. Since August, a pantry has been quietly serving students at the University of Kentucky.
Students are coming together to help fellow students who many not have access to healthy food through a new initiative called the Big Blue Pantry.
This resource, made possible through the UK Center for Community Outreach, has been helping students in need since it opened in August. But the pantry is also helping students who serve as coordinators for the program thanks to collaboration with Dietetics and Human Nutrition faculty & staff within the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment's School of Human Environmental Sciences.
Watch the video feature to discover what the resource means both to the students in need as well as the students working to meet those needs.
Below is a transcript of the video:"Down an upstairs hallway in Alumni Gym is a pantry where UK students stay busy stocking the shelves with donated food for their fellow students. You don't realize that the people you go to school with everyday have these needs. We are seeing on average about 30 people a week. Thursday's are our busiest days definitely. This Big Blue Pantry serves students like Natalie. I go there normally once a week and I just get like a couple things I need for a week. It's been a really, really helpful program. A program experts say is becoming more and more common on college campuses nationwide. I was excited to hear that there was interest at the University of Kentucky and reaching out specifically to the student population in caring for this need. Hunger is a really silent, quiet, problem that is woven throughout every community. Here in Kentucky God’s pantry food bank is currently reaching out to 190,000 unique individuals annually. That’s about 1 in 7 Kentuckians are getting food assistance through a pantry, shelter or kitchen. So why not a university student why would university students be any different than the population at large? The hope is that this resource outside of the classroom will help students inside the classroom. We need to make sure that these students have access to the food because we know that when people are hungry they're tired, they don't think as well. It is really difficult to think beyond those needs. So to be dealing with those issues and also be working really hard to be successful in school is a tremendous job and has to be very taxing. So we want to make sure these young adults and these students have the nourishment in order to be successful. My grades are super important to me and if I'm working constantly and worrying about not having enough money for food it's gonna affect other areas of my life and I know that that would be the same way for a lot of other people. The Pantry for those students is offering them you know here's a service to support you while you are a college student so you can do well in your classes and you can be successful in life. But the clients aren’t the only ones benefiting from this resource. the Big Blue Pantry has been a really nice collaboration between an academic unit and the Center for Community Outreach. It's really helped me out with my major because I've learned to interact with people and I've learned a lot about their needs. Interacting with the people that come in is my favorite part, building relationships with them. We can lecture all day long but until you actually see the face of somebody who is hungry and you learn how a food bank works you really don't truly understand it. I love feeling like I can help people who are my peers and people that I go to school with. They are so appreciative. They always leave and they are like, 'Thank you so much' and they keep coming back every single week. So, it's really awesome to see them. I care about people and I just don't think that anyone have to be hungry or you know not be able to get a meal. I think that it's important and a basic need that needs to be met. A basic need students like Natalie are grateful for...I would say 'Thank you, you've made a very large aspect of my life a lot less something I have to worry about and I really hope to see it go on you know past when I graduate you know to be available for future generations of students."
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