Panther’s Pantry could use your help

Georgia State’s student-run food bank, Panther’s Pantry, is fighting the good fight to feed the hungry and homeless that attend the university. So why don’t people know about it?

The Pantry, gifted the university’s retired printing room beneath the Urban Life building, first opened in spring 2015 with the sole purpose of providing food to Panthers who might not know where their next meal is coming from.

Pantry volunteer Barbara Leydecker, one of the nutrition students who run the food bank, told The Signal that “food insecurity” is a rising epidemic among colleges across the nation.

“The seniors that graduated in 2015 found that 25 percent of college students are food insecure,” she said. “It’s becoming such a huge problem and so well known, the insecurity of not knowing where your next meals is coming from.”

Thus far, Leydecker said, Panther Pantry has been able to offer sustenance to all students who’ve walked through its doors. But donations aren’t coming in a steady enough stream to ensure the food bank’s long-term sustainability.

“It’s mostly just small bits and pieces coming in,” Leydecker said. “We don’t have anybody bringing us massive boxes of food. We don’t have any steady partnerships.”

And Pantry operators are worried that, when students go home for the summer, donation rates will drop off

“This is going to be a rough part of the year, going into the summer. People tend to donate more to food pantries during the holidays,” she said. “They don’t think about it in March and April and May. And it’s a long time until November comes around again.”

The Pantry’s student operators have been hard-pressed to seek out charitable organizations to endorse their cause.

Who can help?

Leydecker said she and her fellow volunteers have been reaching out to student orgs, athletic teams and university officials for help perpetuating their aid to the needy.

“We need the leaders of these fraternities and sororities,” she said. “This is a huge university. Such a small percent know we exist.”

But Leydecker said the Pantry’s advocates aren’t in the business of hounding people for donations. She’d just like people to understand how easy it can be to contribute to a worthy cause.

“We don’t want to depend on one department or one group of students,” she said. “The nutrition students would love to carry it, but there’s 50 of us. That’s only going to go so far and we have 50,000 student who could be a part of it.”

Leydecker said she’d love to see university athletics officials get on board with Panther’s Pantry initiatives.

“If we can get the basketball team to have a night with a can drive, so many thousands of people will at least hear the word that we have a food pantry on campus,” she said. “Just asking for those donations is going to bring in donors and people who need us.”

Pantry volunteers think ticket discounts in exchange for food donations could be a good idea too.

“We’ve reached out to the baseball team, but what we hate to do is cold call. We hate to just throw an email to a coach,” Leydecker said. “So we’d like to get in with the players and say, ‘Hey, can you take five minutes with your coach and let him know that I’m gonna email him. Do you support this, and would you be willing to talk to your coach about it?”

Who’s helping now?

Georgia State’s chemistry department, freshman learning communities and school of public health have all thrown food drives to rally interest and resources for Panther Pantry. And the Greater Atlanta Dietetic Association is hosting its own drive in March.

“But we don’t want to weigh on them, asking ‘can you please do this again?,’” Leydecker said. “The School of Public Health’s Community Engagement Corp just ran a food drive for us. And the nutrition program has the junior class competing with the senior class for the month of February for bringing in more donations. Except, instead of tracking the amount of donations, we’re tracking fiber grams donated, which is just a nutrition student geek way to do it.”

So in terms of ongoing partnerships for donation channels, Leydecker said, there are few.

“Between the Student Government Association (SGA) and The Signal, that’s the only feedback saying we’ll commit to donating,” she said.

SGA’s recently-appointed President Pro Tem Justin Brightharp pushed and passed legislation earlier this month to require all Georgia State course syllabi to include information on services for underprivileged or struggling students.

“That will route people to the dean of students, who will route the food insecure student to us,” Leydecker said. “Right now most of our referrals come from the counseling center.”

Another nutrition student, Sam Krauss, said the issue hasn’t been a lack of a charitable spirit on campus; just a lack of exposure for Panther Pantry.

“Some of the dorms do a food drive for Christmas, but they sent the donations somewhere else, because they didn’t know about us,” she said. “But now they know about us.”

What’s in store?

Last fall, Leydecker said the volunteer nutrition students could go through entire two-hour shifts and never have anybody walk in the door.

“If we got five people a week, that was a lot,” she said. “Now we’re definitely up to between ten and fifteen people a week.”

But she also said she knows of other colleges in America that boast grocery store style food banks, which Panther’s Pantry could someday aspire to be.

“Some food pantries are huge and can pack up boxes of food to give away every day. We’d like to take over the room next door if we can expand,” Leydecker said of the deserted basement room neighboring the Pantry.

“Food insecurity is not going to go away in the next decade,” Leydecker said.

But every effort counts.