“Asking for help can be hard, so we try to tell our clients to let us help them now so that when they are able, they can pay it forward to someone else.”
Swipe Out Hunger said its grants are made possible thanks to the support of the ECMC Foundation, Kresge Foundation, The M.B. & Edna Zale Foundation, and community members who are committed to ending college student hunger.
The Campus Cabinet food pantry opened its doors on Jan. 16, 2019, and by the end of the fall 2022 semester, it has registered 169 clients. Since its opening through the end of the fall 2022 semester, the pantry has distributed more than 13,000 pounds of inventory that is free to its clients in need.
Since the pantry at the Alva campus opened, smaller pantries are now available at both the Enid and Woodward campus locations.
Case noted that nearly half – 48 percent – of Northwestern’s student population are low-income first-generation students, meaning these students are the first to go to college in their families, so the students are not only learning their way around college life but may need assistance with food as well.
And, because the number of clients is increasing and donations since the Covid years have gone down, this grant and other donations come at the perfect time.
Case said that all monetary donations to the campus pantry are tax deductible and can be sent to her attention at NWOSU, 709 Oklahoma Blvd., Alva, OK 73717 with “Campus Cabinet food pantry” in the memo. The funds will be deposited into an account with the Northwestern Foundation and Alumni Association.
“When you come from a place where something such as this pantry would have been a great benefit to you, you tend to believe in the goals and mission just a little bit more,” Case said. “We just want to help.”
More information about the Campus Cabinet food pantry and the list of foods it could use most can be found at www.nwosu.edu/campus-cabinet. To learn more about Swipe’s grant cycle and the organization in general, a newsletter signup is available at https://share.hsforms.com/1z0EjHh9GREaMAJnIL13hZQ2sdc4.
-NW-