The Cabrini Cupboard, the University’s on campus food pantry, will offer an expanded variety of fresh food and accessories this year in an effort to serve students across the food insecurity spectrum.
The reimagined Cupboard has been open all summer, offering students fresh vegetables, meats, and dairy products, as well as toiletries and other items. Angela N. Campbell, PhD, Vice President, Mission, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging and Student Engagement, said the aim was to create the feel of a market inside the Cupboard – a vision that has been realized through partnerships with the University’s Wolfington Center and Campus Ministry forged with local farms and community organizations.
Ray Ward, PhD, Director, Cabrini’s Wolfington Center, through which students engage in service work with the Cupboard, said that the Pierce Foundation enables some of Cabrini’s “brightest and most civically minded students” to “pursue innovative approaches to ending hunger and food insecurity in our own communities.”
Hunger and food insecurity are best addressed in partnership with those who understand it first-hand, and we have seen that some of our most powerful advocates in this fight have been students working out of their own struggles with obtaining good meals,” said Ward.
The Wolfington Center has partnered with Martha’s Choice Marketplace, a food pantry in nearby Norristown, PA, bringing in fresher, healthier foods than standard grab-and-go snacks and microwave meals. Increased refrigeration capacity has also brought a wider variety of food, such as meats and dairy.
The Cabrini Cupboard receives two shipments of food monthly from Martha’s Choice and has seen great support from the Pincus Family Foundation. More food and accessories are donated each year from the Cabrini Cavalier community at large, including faculty, staff and alumni.
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