MU’s Tiger Pantry has distributed more than 22 thousand pounds of food that reached more than two thousand people in its first year of operation. The campus-based food pantry celebrated its first year last night (Wednesday) with a birthday party. MU’s “first lady” Anne Deaton was instrumental in the start up of Tiger Pantry. She says she couldn’t have done it without the students.
“The most important thing I can do tonight is to thank the students and all of the supporters for all of the great effort and the dogged determinism that went into creating Tiger Pantry,” Deaton said.
Missouri Student Association President Nick Droege is the founder and the original director of Tiger Pantry. He says he couldn’t have imagined this kind of success for Tiger Pantry.
“I don’t think we ever really envisioned how integral a part of the Mizzou community this would’ve become,” Droege said.
Droege now acts as a resource for Tiger Pantry’s new director Paul Haluszczak. Haluszczak says Tiger Pantry takes about 30 volunteers a semester.
“We could not be more ecstatic about the results we’ve had in terms of the campus involvement and just the support we’ve had all campus wide,” Haluszczak said.
The celebration was also supposed to include a screening of, “A Place at The Table,” a documentary about food insecurity in the United States, but there were technical difficulties. The Tiger Pantry team still plans on showing the film in the near future.
Tiger Pantry has received nearly one thousand orders from nearly three hundred clients in its first year. Tiger Pantry provides basic food necessities for students, faculty and staff in need.