Racers Helping Racers is in need of donations as the number of students using the food pantry continues to rise.
Racers Helping Racers is Murray State’s on-campus food pantry and is available to anyone with a valid student ID. According to the Racers Helping Racers website, the process is “no questions asked and completely confidential.”
Trish Lofton, a Racers Helping Racers team member, said the pantry is seeing “exponential growth” in the number of students who access the food pantry.
“Each month, we are seeing double the amount of students over the previous year,” Lofton said.
The lower amounts of available financial aid is a reason for more students utilizing the food pantry, Lofton said. With costs rising everywhere, many students may find themselves unable to purchase food and other necessities throughout the semester on top of college payments.
“Some reasons for the increase in students accessing the food pantry are lower amounts of financial (like Pell Grants) and higher costs for food,” Lofton said. “Some students have to choose between eating or paying their bills.”
According to the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, 23% of undergraduate students face food insecurity, which totals to almost 4 million students. This statistic is more than double the rate of food insecurity within households in the United States, based on a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A report from the Government Accountability Office said students who are food insecure “often (skip) meals or (eat) less due to financial constraints.”
The American Psychological Association says that food insecurity negatively affects students’ “academic distress, grade point average, and mental health challenges.” Food pantries, especially ones on college campuses, are a vital resource for many students in a situation of food insecurity.
With more students accessing the help they need through Racers Helping Racers, Lofton said it puts a “strain on the amount of food we needed to keep the pantry stocked.” Because the need for the pantry’s services has increased, so has the need for donations.
To help the food pantry, the Parking Office made changes to the Pay It Forward program. The Pay It Forward program works with Racers Helping Racers and allows “students, faculty, and staff to bring in non-perishable food or hygiene items in order to waive one eligible (parking) citation per semester,” according to an email from Parking Services.
Katrina Carr, Parking Services parking manager, said the Parking Office learned of the food pantry’s situation at an SGA meeting last year and altered the program to increase the amount of donations to the food pantry.
“In response, we reviewed our approved citation list for the Pay It Forward program and received approval to temporarily include the Visitor Zone citation,” Carr said.
The addition of the Visitor Zone parking citations has increased the number of donations received by the Parking Office, Carr said. These donations are delivered to the food pantry on a weekly basis.
Outside of the Pay It Forward donations, Lofton said the pantry receives monetary and food donations from food drives, but there is always a need for further donations.
“We are always in need of breakfast foods like cereal, oatmeal, fruit/grain bars, granola bars, canned fruit, hygiene products, and so much more,” Lofton said. “We keep a list of needed items on the food pantry page found on the MSU website.”
For more information on Racers Helping Racers, including hours of operation and ways to donate, visit the Racers Helping Racers food pantry webpage.
