Southeast will host a mobile food pantry for students, faculty and staff on Saturday, April 18.

Employees at the The Redhawk Food Pantry will curb-side deliver 100 boxes of non-perishable food items to individuals on a first-come, first-serve basis such as canned goods, boxed mixes and dry goods.

The pantry will be arranged in a drive-through format to protect the safety of individuals providing and receiving the goods in order to follow social distancing guidelines throughout the process.

Gabrione Kent, founder of the ‘One Meal A Week’ program explained the food pantry was a great opportunity for Southeast to show their love for their students and sympathize with their situation.

“Food pantries are extremely valuable, and that is even more true right now. They are still supplying food for people who are food insecure even during the pandemic. For some, food pantries are the only source of food while they’re out of work,” Kent said.

Bruce Skinner, associate vice president for Student Life at Southeast explained the idea to create a mobile pantry was a response to social distancing guidelines.

“The campus was committed to helping our students and employees in need, and since we could not have them in the pantry, we figured out how to bring the pantry to them,” Skinner said. “There are other pantries in our region that operate drive through pantries, so we are borrowing on their idea to help serve our students and employees.”

Pick-up for students and staff will be Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon outside of the Student Recreation Center.

“We are currently working with the SEMO Food Bank for another mobile pantry during the first half of May,” Skinner said. “We will be ready to announce more details on this in the coming days as we confirm our plan with the food bank.”