The Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Food Pantry will be passing out Thanksgiving food baskets to 125 students and faculty the week of Nov. 16.
Full Circle Food Pantry serves as the official on-campus food pantry for anyone with a U of A or UAMS ID as well as their household. Full Circle is a nine-person team, led by student volunteers. Due to high rates of food insecurity, the pantry serves more faculty and staff each semester than students.
Alexis Skinner, Intern at Full Circle Food Pantry, said 38% of undergraduate and 47% of graduate students have faced food insecurity at the university. Of those numbers, only 2% of students who are food insecure reach out to the food pantry for help. Skinner said students have a stigma that it’s normal to choose between paying the bills or buying groceries in college.
“We get a lot of people that say if you’re a college student, you’d think that you have money to pay for food because college is expensive, but that’s really not the case,” Skinner said.
“Our mission is to make sure that people in the community have adequate resources that they can get,” said Kolten Long, Chair of Full Circle Food Pantry. “Especially at a time of getting an education”
Full Circle holds a position for interns called, “Cooking Matters”. The intern hosts different cooking classes around the campus to show students and staff how to cook on a budget. Long said this class teaches participants how to get the best nutritional value for the cheapest price, when shopping for groceries. Due to the virus, the cooking classes are currently being done virtually.
Homecoming is Full Circle’s biggest food drive of the year. Last year, the non-profit raised 23,000 items. The food pantry also holds a food drive for the spring semester, either before or after spring break. Full Circle provides 125 clients with themed baskets throughout the year. Students and staff can receive a basket for Thanksgiving, Christmas, spring, and summer.
“That comes directly out of our budget,” said Long. “All of it comes from donations.”
The food items for the baskets are bought through the food pantry with the money that is donated to them. The non-profit runs solely off of food and money donations to provide baskets and weekly groceries to the community.
Due to COVID-19, the pantry has an online ordering system, where clients can fill out a list of food options to receive on a weekly basis.
Jane B. Gearhart Food Pantry hours for in-person, online order pick-up:
Monday noon-3p.m.
Wednesday 3:p.m.-5p.m.
Thursday 10:a.m.-2p.m.
Tuesday and Thursday 11:a.m.-noon, the pantry is open for express pick-up, where volunteers from the food pantry will drop off food to clients at different listed locations for their convenience.
Anyone that would like to financially contribute to the Full Circle Food Pantry, can go to the Full Circle Food Pantry giving page or contact the office of Student Affairs Development.
Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Food Pantry is located on 324 S. Stadium Drive, Fayetteville, AR, 72701.