By Michael Higgins, External Relations and Development Coordinator at the Business School and Co-Founder and Chair of The Food Pantry at Columbia
Hunger on this campus, on any campus, is nothing new. Everyone can appreciate that students may skip meals. However, the presumption is that those students voluntarily skip meals because they chose to skip meals. The fact is that students skip meals not because they have better things to do. They skip meals because they do not have the resources to pay for meals. In May 2016, students took it upon themselves to do something about it.
The Food Pantry at Columbia started as a vision within the General Studies Student Council. From this, I and Ramond Curtis, my fellow co-founder, spearheaded this initiative that has two major mission philosophies – shine a spotlight on the stigma of hunger on our campus and provide access to non-perishable food to any Columbia affiliate who needs it. While I focused on the logistics of our initiative, Ramond focused on the administrative side. Before the end of the year, we had not only distributed over 150 disbursements to students throughout the University, but we also secured permanent space within Lerner Hall, something that no other student group can state.
Within the last two years, The Food Pantry at Columbia has grown into the most influential student group within the University. We have distributed over 1300 disbursements to every School within the University. In addition, we have quantifiable data proving that hunger is a major problem within our University. Our goals are as attainable as they are ambitious. I am honored to be a part of such a powerful initiative and hope to be part of it for years to come as an employee at Columbia Business School.
