Kroger Mid-Atlantic Donates $6,000 to VCU’s Ram Pantry
Established in 2014, Ram Pantry’s mission is to ensure food security among VCU students
Kroger Mid-Atlantic recently donated $6,000 to Ram Pantry, Virginia Commonwealth University’s food pantry, which has a mission to ensure food security, human dignity and well-being on campus by providing in-need VCU students with food. This monetary donation from Kroger will allow the Ram Pantry to create complete meals for students and purchase healthy and desired items. Kroger will continue to support Ram Pantry throughout the year with gift cards.
Established in 2014 as a student run and student led food pantry for students, Ram Pantry has had 3,800 visits from September 2017 through March 2020. In March, Ram Pantry closed due to COVID-19 and emptied their inventory to sustain students during the break. Since reopening in September, Ram Pantry has served 45 students by appointment only.
“This large monetary gift from Kroger will allow us to ensure that we have food on hand for months to come, as well as allows us to provide each guest with substantially larger orders than we had in years past,” said Lisa Mathews-Ailsworth, an advisor in the Dean of Students Office at Virginia Community University. “Prior to this donation, we gave guests 5 to 7 items of non perishables a week, we’ve since increased this amount to 10.”
When students visit Ram Pantry, they are only required to fill out a survey to receive food. Everything is free to students and all items have been provided by donations from individuals, companies, clubs and corporations.
“We know students can’t focus on learning when they are hungry and Ram Pantry is an incredibly important resource for VCU students,” said Allison McGee, corporate affairs manager with Kroger Mid-Atlantic. “As a part of our company-wide Zero Hunger Zero Waste efforts, we are committed to the fight against hunger. We hope this is just the beginning of our relationship with Ram Pantry.”
Ram Pantry is currently open from 12 – 7 p.m. by appointment only and is located in the University Student Commons, on the first floor in room 121. They are open Monday through Thursday from 12 to 7 p.m. by appointment only. Students interested in more information should visit the Ram Pantry website, email rampantry@vcu.edu or call (804) 828-4514.
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About Ram Pantry: The mission of Ram Pantry is to ensure food security, human dignity and well-being on campus by providing in-need VCU students with food. To this end, Ram Pantry will collaborate with university and community partners to research and implement innovative approaches to food security and community health. We will do our part to ensure that no student in the VCU community goes hungry and that every student has access to nutritious food.
About Kroger’s Mid-Atlantic Division: The Mid-Atlantic Division operates more than 100 stores in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio. Based in Roanoke, Virginia, the Mid-Atlantic Division employs about 18,000 associates. Kroger is dedicated to eliminating hunger in the communities it serves through partnerships with nine Feeding America food banks and numerous local organizations. The grocers Zero Hunger | Zero Waste efforts are aimed at ending hunger in Kroger communities and eliminating waste in stores by 2025. Kroger also supports breast cancer research, the military and their families and more than 4,000 nonprofit organizations. Last year, Kroger Mid-Atlantic donated 16.5 million meals to charity and 3,606,296 pounds of food to food bank partners.
Categories Fall 2020 - Spring 2021