DSU becomes first Del. college to open food pantry

problem of hunger appears to hit home for a local university — which is now the first campus in delaware to offer a food pantry. 47 a-b-c’s lili zheng reports. track 1 shelves — of granola bars — cereal — and canned goods. nat pop of cans track 2 it’s not a grocery store. the people they’re feeding — in fact — pay nothing. the new food pantry at delaware state university — is the first college in the first state — to offer this kind of assistance to their students considered food insecure. meaning — they do not have access to nutritious food — either because they can’t afford it — or for other reasons. dr. marsha horton — dean of the college of education, health, and public policy at d-s-u — tells 47 a-b-c an assessment found this applies to 57 percent of their students. 01:25:11 a lot of people just assume that students are not having that issue because we do provide meal services on campus, and so it was surprising to me that over 50 percent of students had indicated through survey results that they were experiencing some level of food insecurity 24 track 3 the pantry is open once a week – and any student can come grab what they need. school officials say — it’s made possible from help through the harry k. foundation. harry keswani — president of the foundation — says there’s currently 27 food pantries serving 45 k-through-12 schools across delaware. 01:31:51 i go out every morning looking for sponsorships from some of the businesses in town. we get our sponsorships. the money comes into the harry k. foundation. from there, we purchase the food from the food bank and we set up our pantries 03 track 4 with the goal — of having no child going hungry in delaware. lili zheng, 47 a-b-c. we’re told — the foundation’s goal is to have thirty sponsored school food pantries in delaware by the end of this school year. d-s-u says — they also accept food donations outside of the sponsorship. if you’re interested in helping — check out this story on our website — 47 a-b-c dot com. a professor — in the process of compiling the results of fifty years of research into