Grambling State to create food pantry for students

GRAMBLING, La. (KNOE) - Grambling State University announced it is creating a new Tiger Resource Room for its students, partnering with Whataburger. The room will have a food pantry and resource center as well.

“My brother is a junior here. One day, he was coming home. He was talking about his day. I asked him how was the food in the café that day, and he said his swipes had run out,” says Karmel Reeves, Grambling Graduate SGA president.

Reeves says it reminded her that many students can suffer from food insecurity on campus. That’s when reeves knew she had to do something, because everyone else isn’t as lucky.

“When I realized that had it not been for me being here, he might not have had access to the café food. I realized we needed to do something.”

So, Reeves and SGA president Steven Wilson joined together to come up with a solution to food insecurity on campus: The Tiger Resource Room.

“We reached out to some of our administrators who helped us form a steering committee composed of student leaders and faculty and staff which helped us create the framework for the resource room,” Reeves says.

The university’s food service provider SodexoMAGIC is also supporting the program. The Food Bank of Northeast Louisiana is providing food for the pantry.

“We are here to feed your success,” Reeves says. “That’s one of the reasons why Whataburger has involved themselves, the Food Bank has involved themselves as well. Because, we’re committed to our students feeling like they are somebody.”

Their goal is to help every student succeed while they’re here. “They can trust that the university has their best interest at heart in fighting against food insecurity.”

Reeves says they hope to have the Tiger Resource Room open sometime this Fall 2020 semester. It will be in the Favrot Student Union on campus.

Copyright 2020 KNOE. All rights reserved.