COLUMBIA, S.C. — To commemorate Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, the University of South Carolina held a campus-wide food drive on Monday.
The University's Leadership and Service Center hosted the Gamecock Pantry Great Food Race. Various student organizations and other university academic departments were able to drop off non-perishable food items.
The Gamecock Food Pantry, created for students by students, provides members of the Carolina community with access to food and toiletries in a free and confidential way while creating awareness about food insecurity at Carolina.
The event was the first time a university-wide food drive was held to stock up the pantry.
It started out with our colleagues over in CIC, and they were like, 'Hey, you know we have this event where, around Halloween, called the Halloweiner, where everybody dresses up like hotdogs,' and we were like, "What can we do to use costumes but also raise food for the Gamecock Pantry?' said Jabari Bodrick, who works with the pantry. "That was back in 2019, and so we were originally going to have the inaugural Great Food Race back in 2019 but, of course, the pandemic hit and we weren't able to do it. And, so, we were able to do it this time, and everybody wore their costumes, and we had lots of food out here, music, Cocky, things of that nature ... so, it ended up being great."
University officials confirmed visits to the Gamecock Pantry increased since the fall of last year.