One student shares experience with food insecurity and how they used Rampantry: During my freshman year here at VCU, I had to purchase a meal plan which I really couldnt afford because I lived in the dorms. I got the cheapest plan available and planned to the very last detail: how many times a day and how many times a week I could afford to eat. On several occasions —because I couldnt afford to go back home as often as some people did, and I stayed on campus a lot— I would starve myself so that I could stay on schedule and not run out of swipes during finals week. This caused me to fall into a bad habit of binge-eating and essentially filling up as much as I could at Shafer so that I didnt need to eat again until dinnertime. I always skipped breakfast. My sophomore year was a little better because I had a kitchen in my apartment. I could cook a lot of cheap canned food that could fill me up for longer periods of time since I worked 6 hours in the morning downtown and had to make it back up to the Monroe Campus in time for class. I still did go hungry a lot, because I couldnt afford to purchase any snacks to take with me on the go. Some might wonder why I didnt use the money from my job to purchase food. I did. I purchased the cheapest (and not so healthy) kind because anything else would cut into my school fund and family support fund. The pantry came about in my junior year, and I jumped on that train as soon as I heard about it! I absolutely love the idea and appreciate how far its come since my first visit. There are now, in addition to boxed food, fresh produce (yum), and fresh bread! I really hope that this will excel and continue to provide kids like me the opportunity to be able to focus on other things. Theres nothing better that can help your grades in university than knowing that all you have to do is focus, work hard, and do your best, rather than constantly worrying about whether you can afford food this week. Thank you for sharing your touching story! We are glad you can feel more secure about your food options.
Posted on: Sat, 21 Jun 2014 14:00:01 +0000
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