Our fridge is an ongoing success with continued support from local non-profits and food businesses. Here are some photos of the snacks we purchase weekly with our ChangeX funds, food rescue donations from local businesses and a delivery from a Local Food Program that brings food from local farms to community fridges. Our students provide highly positive feedback on having access to this fridge on campus and we hope to be able to continue to provide quality meals and snacks for them going forward.
Over the past 6 months we have been able to increase the variety and volume of food available to our students to ensure they are not going to class hungry. Between our fridge and 2 dry goods pantries, we are now able to offer more on the go food and take home options. With the expansion of the pantry services, we have significantly increased our ability to offer "rescue food" from local restaurants that has been well received by our student population. We hope to continue these efforts into the future and bring more rescue partners on board to keep our fridge stocked throughout the week in addition to snack foods and fruits purchased with grant dollars.
At the Des Moines Area Community College campus in Ankeny, IA we are expanding our existing dry goods food pantry to include a refrigerator. Pamela's Pantry has been helping to feed students since 2003 with grant funding from The Bayer Foundation and Prairie Meadows Foundation. We have pantry shelves in two buildings on campus and recently added a fridge to provide more fresh and healthy foods for our community. Students can learn and retain information better if they are not struggling with hunger, we aim to ensure our students have access to food so they are set up for success.
In October 2022, Eat Greater Des Moines purchased a fridge for us. We receive weekly food rescue deliveries from volunteers through their app and additional donations from our International Culinary Institute on campus, our food businesses on campus, and we are working to develop partnerships with local businesses and non-profits to help us keep our fridge stocked.
Grant Funding from ChangeX
We plan to use the first $3,500 of grant funding on the following:
