Campus Donates Hundreds of Meals for Students

LEXINGTON, Ky (Dec. 11, 2015) — Organizers were thrilled with the results of the third annual SEC Game Winning Food Drive at UK – 825 cans of food to stock the shelves of Big Blue Pantry, a University of Kentucky students’ food bank. That’s nearly eight times last year’s collection total.

“I just want to thank those who participated this year in the SEC Game Winning Food Drive,” said UK event organizer Courtney Pflug. “You have made a huge difference in the lives of our Wildcats who are experiencing hunger or food insecurity.”

Created in 2013 by the Campus Recreation Department at UK and the University of Tennessee, this was the food drive’s most successful drive to date. 

During the month of November, seven schools in the Southeastern Conference raised a total 123,525 food items, or approximately 96,500 pounds of food, providing approximately 80,400 meals to over 31,650 families. Some schools without a food distribution center serving only students on campus donate to their civic community's food drive efforts.

Individual School Rankings:

1. Alabama - 61,560 food items

2. Tennessee -19,834

3. Mississippi State - 2,467

4. Kentucky - 825

5. Ole Miss - 574

6. Missouri - 423

7. Florida -100

About 200 individual students use UK’s Big Blue Pantry regularly, with more joining every week. Donations of nonperishable food items are accepted anytime, but the most needed items are canned meat, cereal, canned fruit and vegetables, peanut butter, and pre-made meals. Pantry managers say toiletries and paper products are greatly needed by the students who regularly stop by the Big Blue Pantry.

Big Blue Pantry is part of the UK Center for Community Outreach, which seeks to serve, connect and unite UK with the surrounding community in collaborative efforts to promote life-long service.

MEDIA CONTACT: Gail Hairston, 859-257-3302, gail.hairston@uky.edu