SOU food pantry seeing dramatic increase in demand

Jenna King February 13, 2023

Last Updated: February 13, 2023

ASHLAND, Ore. —Southern Oregon University says it’s seeing a dramatic increase in demand at its food pantry.

This month is SOU’s annual February Food Drive and organizers say it couldn’t come at a better time. Students can come and get up to ten items once each week.

Since the summer of 2022, its seen over a thousand visits to the student food pantry. The on-campus pantry has nearly been emptied because of the high need.

“The food pantry helps them get through the week when it’s hard for them to get to the grocery store and their food budget for the week has been used and it helps with supplemental food so that they can have more brain power to get through the week,” said organizer, Jill Schmedstad.

The pantry is open to all SOU students from 10 to 4 Monday through Thursday and 10 to 1 each Friday.

If you’d like to donate you can do that here.

Jenna King February 13, 2023

Jenna King

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Jenna King is the 6pm and 11pm anchor for NBC5 News. Jenna is a Burbank, CA native. She graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Sports Business. During her time at Oregon she was part of the student-run television station, Duck TV. She also grew her passion for sports through her internship with the PAC 12 Network. When Jenna is not in the newsroom you can find her rooting for her hometown Dodgers, exploring the outdoors or binging on the latest Netflix release.