This year the SOU Food Pantry is holding a February Food Drive to support students and faculty on campus. In every building on campus, a drum can be found to donate supplies with the Food Drive label on it. The drive started on February 2nd and will continue until March 1st.
For those unfamiliar with the SOU Food Pantry, it is open to all students on campus and is located in the Stevenson Union in Room 312. All that is needed to access the Food Pantry is an SOU ID number, but there is a limit of ten items per week.
The Food Drive is accepting non perishables foods, water, and toiletries. Canned goods, water gallons or bottles, and hygiene items are all good starters to bring for the drive. The Food Drive is geared towards SOU employees to donate as much as they can, and students are not pressed to donate for the drive, although they can if they wish. The biggest driving point for the drive is to bring in support to the student body and alleviate a potential stressor for students all over campus, “Most students have a job or two… they have an option to alleviate that stress [of securing food],” says Josh Kahsen, one of the food drive’s coordinators.
The food drive is more than just a campus event, as it supports the student body in a way not many events do; the food drive provides food security to SOU students. Kahsen states “53 percent of students [in the general population] are facing food insecurity.” When asked what the food pantry meant to him, Kahsen responded with this, “for me, it’s a way for students to get enough food to help them(selves) with their day to day lives.” While the food pantry is a wonderful resource on the SOU campus, it is not infinite, “unfortunately, since our pantry is limited by donations, the food pantry can’t be the only way of feeding people; we have to limit it to 10 items a week,” Kahsen says. There are other resources for food security that can be found outside of campus such as the Ashland Community Food bank (located at 560 Clover Ln) or the Talent Food Pantry (located 206 E Main St).
The Food Drive is also accepting monetary donations through their website linked here. Monetary donations can be made as a one-time donation, or as recurring donations to be made monthly, quarterly, or annually.
With February coming to a close, there is still time to make donations and spread the word! For those wanting to help the drive beyond donations, on March 1st the food drive barrels will be taken out of every building on campus, and volunteer help is greatly appreciated. Contact the Food Pantry at foodpantry@sou.edu for more information.
