WYTHEVILLE, Va. (WDBJ7)— For the first time since it was started, Wytheville Community College has received grant money to expand its food pantry services on campus. But the grant isn’t the only funding source the pantry will soon see.
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“This is an awesome opportunity to build on what we already have in place,” said college President Dr. Dean Sprinkle. “So many of our students work or attend school part time, and financially it’s a stress on them to come back to school. Anything we can do to help ease a burden and meet a need to reduce hunger is a great thing in our community.”
The community college has had a food pantry on campus since 2014. All this time it was stacked and supplied by faculty and students to support one another.
“They always want to help, they always want to contribute,” said Tracy McAfee, an associate professor of communication studies and theater. “We always talk about wanting to help students, but now we have resources that we can help even more. I think this is one of those things with this grant and this money that is really going to help our students. It’s not about the college, it’s always about our students.”
Tuesday, the college announced it received a $4,800 grant thanks to a partnership between Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Virginia’s community colleges. Thanks to this money, they can keep the pantry open five days a week and provide more food and resources.
“You always wonder if students aren’t here on days when it’s out, will they be able to have what they need? To make it available five days a week is great,” said Rhonda Catron-Wood, the vice president of institutional advancement at the college.
The food pantry is strategically placed so students can simply walk by and pick up whatever they need. Everyone is very excited to have extra funding to help give back to the campus community.
“There’s nobody watching because people are self-conscious about charity and if someone’s hungry, no one should be hungry,” said McAfee. “This is a great reason why we have this table set up in a hallway.”
“This is just another way that we can support those folks as they’re making those efforts to raise their standard of living and make a better provision for their families,” Sprinkle said.
But the grant isn’t the only help coming to the pantry.
“We want to be able to continue to support the community and this is just one way that we can do it,” said Marsha Otey, the campus bookstore manager.
The bookstore is also partnering with the Virginia Community College System Hunger Project to help raise money for the food bank. They are collecting donations at the register. Follett Higher Education Group will match donations up to $1,000, so they have the potential of earning an additional $2,000 or more to go back to helping the campus family in need.
“We feel like a student is not going to be able to study and learn if they’re hungry, so again that goes right to our mission that we want to improve the world and this is our way to help do that,” Otey said. “Even though students are concerned with getting their supplies for the fall rush, we have had good feedback.”
Right now there is no end date on the donations being collected at the bookstore. Wytheville’s bookstore is joining 18 other VCCS stores in this process. Otey said she thinks they will keep it going until all of the colleges can hit the $1,000 mark.
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