Over the course of Feb. 12 to Feb. 16, Oakland University’s Golden Grizzly Pantry and OU EATS Chartwells have partnered with Swipe Out Hunger to create a meal swipe drive during the Week of Kindness at Oakland University.
Due to the success of the first week’s drive, the organizations have extended the Swipe Drive to Feb. 19 through Feb. 23, giving students an extra opportunity to participate.
The swipe drive allows students and faculty to donate up to five of their meal swipes to later be used to create meal vouchers. The vouchers allow those in need to eat a warm meal from either of OU’s dining halls.
Chris Reed, the director of the Oakland Center, explains that the current Swipe Drive has been successful compared to the drive held during the fall semester.
“Compared to the fall semester, it is doing exceptionally well,” Reed said. “We are already more than double the number of swipes donated this semester compared to the fall. In the fall we had between 70 and 80, and now we’re already over 150 meals donated.”
A big component of the rise in donations stems from the new system for collecting meal swipes. Isabella Levitt, the manager of the Golden Grizzly Pantry, says that making a Google form and QR codes has made a big difference in the process.
“The past couple of times we’ve done it, students had to go to the dining hall and go to the register and donate one swipe per day because their systems don’t allow anything more than that,” Levitt said. “With this Google form, they can go in and indicate how many swipes they’d like to give, which is far more accessible for students who may not be in the dining hall every day.”
Once the meal vouchers are made, students are welcome to pick them up in the Golden Grizzly Pantry in the Oakland Center.
“It’s one of my personal favorite things that we do because it allows people a hot meal,” Levitt said. “We’re great at offering perishable and non-perishable grocery items, but it’s great to have another option to get people a hot meal that they don’t have to prepare themselves.”
Reed explains why he believes it is important to donate meal swipes.
“There’s a lot of students that have a need on our campus for meals and food,” Reed said. “Obviously the [Golden] Grizzlies Pantry downstairs always needs help since they go through donations like crazy, which is a good and a bad thing. Anything that we can do, whether it’s students, faculty, or staff, to help support that great need on campus, I think makes a huge difference.”
For those interested in donating their meal swipes, please visit the Google Form, or visit either of OU’s dining halls, located in Hillcrest Hall and Vandenberg Hall. Even without a meal plan, anyone can help out. Those who do not own meal swipes can go to either dining hall to purchase and donate individual meal swipes.
