LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) is tackling a hidden issue faced by many college students: food insecurity. With surveys indicating that nearly one in four college students struggles to afford food at some point during their studies, FGCU offers a remedy through its food pantry, supported by generous donations.<\/p>\n
Temporary challenges, such as a broken car, can make accessing groceries difficult.<\/p>\n
“So then once their car is fixed, you know, then they’ll have more money, and they can go back to grocery shopping,” a student said.<\/p>\n
The pantry, which receives donations largely from the Harry Chapin Food Bank and local stores like Publix, provides free food to students in need.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kelly, a student who has used the food pantry, expressed her appreciation for items like avocado spray, which would be expensive to purchase otherwise.<\/p>\n
“It would be like, $10 so this is a great deal,” Kelly said.<\/p>\n
Sam Lloyd, who runs the FGCU food pantry, shared her pride in the program.<\/p>\n
“I just really love it here. I love helping our students here at FGCU,” said Lloyd, who herself relied on a similar resource during her college years.<\/p>\n
Lloyd recounted her own experience working 20 hours a week, which only covered rent but not other essentials like gas, utilities, or food.<\/p>\n
“And I was working about 20 hours a week at work, and that only covered rent. It did not cover gas, utilities, or food,” said Lloyd.<\/p>\n
The pantry offers a wide range of items, including meat, bread, canned food, boxed food, and even pots, pans, and silverware, ensuring that students have everything they need to prepare and enjoy meals.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“The pantry will continue to\u00a0support students as long as I can help it,” Lloyd said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) \u2014 Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) is tackling a hidden issue faced by many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,9149],"class_list":["post-158840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-florida-gulf-coast-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}