RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Commonwealth University is making sure their students don't go hungry.
The school and the VCU Foundation have partnered with the nonprofit FeedMoreto keep their Ram Pantry and 13 Little Ram Pantries stocked with food to help students in need.
The collaboration will greatly support VCU's ongoing efforts to address food insecurity among its students — a problem that a recent study found affects more than one in three of their students.
It also comes as Ram Pantry is experiencing an increased demand for food among VCU students.
“This semester, we have had record numbers in regards to the number of visits and guests,” said Lisa Mathews-Ailsworth, assistant director for student support in the Division of Student Affairs. “On average, we are having upwards of 80 people visit a week, which is double what we were seeing last year. This semester we've served 268 guests over 830 times.”
All of the food provided by Ram Pantry has been directly donated by individuals, organizations and corporations, either directly or through monetary donations. No university funds have been used to purchase food.
But the collaboration allows donated money to be used to buy food from FeedMore at greatly reduced prices.
