During national Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, 350 volunteers comprised of students, faculty, and staff packaged 49,680 non-perishable meals for the local community and UT. This is the first time Student Life and the Office of the Dean of Students have hosted a volunteer event for Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. The meals consisted of a 6-serving size bag of macaroni and cheese, fortified with soy, protein, and vitamins.

Ciara Gazaway, the coordinator for inclusive excellence in the Office of the Dean of Students, explained the decision to alter the approach to the week came from a distinct call from Student Life leadership to provide a more expansive service opportunity that directly influenced the campus and local community.  That’s how she connected with Meals of Hope, a nonprofit meal packaging company.

“The main reason we selected Meals of Hope is that their goal is to allow the organization to decide where the meals go and where they’re distributed,” said Gazaway. “We knew  the meals we were packaging would be benefiting our community.”

Of the more than 49,000 meals, 32,000+ meals were delivered to the Big Orange Pantry on campus, nearly 300 meals were delivered to Smokey’s Pantry, 2,500 meals were delivered to Pellissippi Pantry, 4,000 meals were delivered to Love Kitchen, 5,000 were delivered to Knox Pride & Positively Living, and 5,000 were delivered to Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee.

While packaging meals, volunteers had the opportunity to learn more about food insecurity statistics related to college students and the state of Tennessee. This allowed them to engage in conversations and have an increased understanding of how basic needs concerns affect our community.

“The Pack to Give Back event was a great opportunity for faculty, staff, and students to come together and learn more about the hardships faced by our very own Volunteer community,” said Blake Weiss, program director of basic needs in the Office of the Dean of Students. “While the focus of the event was packing meals, the impact extends far beyond providing food. There is immense value in raising awareness around food insecurity on college campuses so we can advocate for reducing barriers to essential support. The Big Orange Pantry received meals but the campus community received the opportunity to engage with the realities of many of our faculty, staff, and students – I hope the event inspired action long after the engagement.”

Continued Basic Needs Service for Our Community

The impact of large-scale volunteering events such as Pack to Give Back can make a difference both on and off campus. Service events also continue to strengthen our connection to each other. One volunteer from the event explained, “​​I genuinely had a great time participating in this event. While helping to facilitate the meal preparation and packaging process, I had the opportunity to get to know my fellow Volunteers who were from various parts and served various roles on campus. Overall, it was a cool experience and went towards a cause that is very important to me, so I had a great time.”

Gazaway and Weiss both explained how important it is to continue to engage in service in order to make a difference in our community. When asked how the UT community can continue to make an impact on and off campus, he encouraged people to “continue engaging in service around basic needs security, both on and off campus. Basic needs are essential to the well-being of all communities and engaging in service allows us to learn more about the root causes of these inequalities and potential solutions for increasing basic needs security in your community – whether that be campus or beyond.”

About the Big Orange Pantry

The Big Orange Pantry has been serving the UT community since the fall of 2020 and provides students, faculty, and staff with essentials such as food, toiletries, hygiene products, and more. The pantry allows people seeking food assistance to choose for themselves what products they receive.

Individuals who want to continue to volunteer for the Big Orange Pantry can find weekly service opportunities through ServeUTK, the university’s service calendar.

Since its launch in July 2022, ServeUTK has engaged more than 8,000 unique users and provided more than 15,000 service opportunities for our campus.