BY: Daaiyah Latham
The AUM Honors Program Food Pantry was created to help students in need of food. The program has been feeding the campus since 2016.
Sonni Gunnels, a former Honor student, formed the idea. Gunnels noticed that she and others were struggling towards the end of the month with food scarcity. In 2012, she began to pass around confidential surveys to get statistics of the food insecurity around campus. Gunnels conducted a second survey before she graduated so the school could be “aware of the pantry’s presence on campus.” The surveys included questions based on the students’ experience with food insecurity, such as, “How often do you experience food insecurity within a given month?” Gunnels found the space where the food could be stored, and that space has been feeding students ever since.
The goal this year for AUM’s food pantry is “really to have enough food for any student on campus that is food insecure, help feed them and help them get through gaps,” said Dr. Stallings, the Director of the University’s Honors Program. Allison Stewart, Chair of the Honors Program, is mentoring other people to take over the food pantry when she graduates.
Honor students run the food pantry and earn service hours. The pantry is open Monday through Thursday for 4 hours. If a student comes during a closed day, Jacqueline Hall, the Coordinator of the Honors Program will open the pantry or Dr. Stallings will open the pantry. People can donate to the food pantry in a lot of ways, but they cannot donate by giving money. You can drop off donations by taking it to the first floor of the library or you can take them into the food pantry’s location, 316E in the Taylor Center. Make sure all donations are non-perishable and not expired. The Honors Program members will even come and get the donations if you tell them where you are located. Dr. Stallings stated that the students “really like macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles, and/or cereal.”
Hall stated that the pantry “really needs the whole campus to help with donations, and everything helps.”
For more information, email
Allison Stewart, Chair (astewa20@aum.edu)
Rachel Wales (rwales@aum.edu)
Sarah Phillips (sphill15@aum.edu)