The University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service's Giving at Graduation will support a sister campus's food pantry this year.
The Clinton School has encouraged its students and graduation attendees to donate to an area organization since 2010. This year, the school is donating to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Trojan Food Pantry.
UALR's food pantry opened in February 2016 and distributes about 300 bags of food each month to students, faculty and staff members, and their families, the university said. The pantry is also open to W.H. Bowen School of Law and Clinton School students, faculty and staff members.
Food pantries have popped up around college and university campuses across the nation, including in Arkansas, as the cost of attendance continues to increase. The hunger-fighting organization Feeding America found that about 10 percent of the adults it served were college students and that 31 percent of its 46 million clients had to choose between paying for food or education each year.
The Trojan Food Pantry is open from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Thursdays in the Donaghey Student Center Room 110B. Run by student volunteers, the pantry gets food items through donations and uses monetary gifts to buy food from the Arkansas FoodBank.
The Clinton School is asking students and graduation attendees to donate food items during the May 7 commencement. The pantry typically needs dry pasta, spaghetti sauce, peanut butter, jelly, tuna, macaroni and cheese, rice mixes, canned soups, and canned beans.
The Clinton School also will accept monetary donations -- with checks made to UALR's Trojan Food Pantry -- either at the graduation or mailed to Clinton School of Public Service, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock, Ark. 72201.
In past years, the Clinton School has given to Volunteers in Public Schools, Our House and the Central Arkansas Library System's Hillary Rodham Clinton Children's Library.
Metro on 04/05/2017