CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)— Austin Peay State University is on track to have 1,000 visits to its on-campus food pantry by the end of the Fall semester. It's part of their effort to support student success by removing hunger as a barrier.
"A lot of our students, they're not looking for handouts. They're just looking for a hand up. They're looking for a little bit of assistance to fill that gap. And we're really happy to be able to provide that service and help them in their in their journey of achieving their goals and dreams," said APSU Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Leonard Clemons. "They can't do that. It makes it much more difficult. Many can, but it makes it tremendously more difficult to do that when you're hungry."
APSU's food pantry was the size of a small closet when it opened in 2011. The Clarksville school became the first public higher education institution to have a food pantry on campus.
"We had some social work graduate students who were doing a needs assessment in the surrounding counties from Montgomery County, and found that a lot of Austin Peay students were utilizing food banks and other counties," said Alexandra Wills, APSU Director of Community Engagement and Sustainability. "So they came back to the university and suggested we start our own food pantry to help alleviate that stress on other food banks."
It has grown to the size of a three-car garage and also includes fresh produce from the school's garden and hydroponic tower. Students can harvest their own greens to make a salad right off of the tower. The school's agriculture department and community partners provide support.
"We have adopted plots for students to grow their own food and learn how to grow long term, how to provide nutritious food for themselves and their families. And then at our Austin Peay experiential learning farm, we have a giant garden every summer and fall that we grow a ton of fresh produce, and then we we give it out, we share it with community partners, and we also freeze it and store it for students to use when it's November and fresh produce is, you know, not in season anymore," said Wills.
The pantry provides frozen foods, nonperishables, household items and professional clothing, all in a welcoming environment with fun music or a Harry Potter audiobook to help ease the stigma around needing help.
"Some of our students are coming in with family members that they're responsible for taking care of. And so we always ask, how many people are you feeding today? And so it could be children, it could be siblings, could be grandparents, parents," said Wills. "We feed the whole family because we know if a student comes in and they get food, it's not just going to be for them, it's going to be for everyone depending on them as well."
The food pantry is funded largely through donations. School leaders are now working to raise $1.5 million to build a new food pantry center on campus. They hope this will also continue to fund the programming that takes place within the center.
And they're not alone in fighting hunger on college campuses. A recent state report found up to 30% of Tennessee postsecondary students may experience some degree of food insecurity.
"It's one of the things that keeps me up at night, honestly, because many of us are very fortunate to be in the place where that's not an issue, and we know that food insecurity is one of the biggest or a significant barrier to students being able to be successful in the classroom," said Dr. Clemons. "And so with Austin Peay focusing on student success and trying to be an epicenter for upward social mobility, this is a barrier that we're trying to remove because we know that unwell students, it's hard for them to be successful in the classroom."
They encourage people to visit the school's website to support their goal of building a new food pantry center.