LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — The University of Kentucky's Big Blue Pantry has expanded its reach to fight student food insecurity by installing food lockers in William T. Young Library.
The new food lockers, located in "The Hub" in the library's basement, provide students with 24/7 access to shelf-stable meals when the pantry is closed.
"If you are a student, you should not have to worry about where your next meal is coming from. You shouldn't have to worry about what you're going to eat or if you're going to eat," said Andrew Perkins, program coordinator with Big Blue Pantry.
The lockers were installed ahead of the new semester to address situations when students need food assistance outside normal pantry hours.
"These lockers enable us to reach a student who's in an emergency situation after hours or on the weekend or holiday when someone is not on campus available to them," Perkins said.
Students can access the emergency food lockers through a simple online process. They visit the Big Blue Pantry website, fill out a form using their student ID number, and sign up to receive a food locker code.
"Once they complete that form, they receive a code and they can unlock one of those lockers here in the basement of the William T. Young Library," Perkins said.
Each locker contains a bag of shelf-stable meals.
Perkins said food insecurity is a growing concern at UK. Last school year, the pantry served approximately 900 people through 2,500 visits.
"There are many students here who are funded by scholarships and may have their tuition paid for, but the extra things that we take for granted, such as family to be able to send money or any kind of support system, some students don't have that," Perkins said.
The Big Blue Pantry accepts both shelf-stable food donations and monetary donations to support its mission of addressing student food insecurity. You can donate here.
