University Cavalier Food Pantry is hosting the SouperBowl of Caring donation drive — a series of events around Grounds to support students faced with food insecurity. The CFP is partnering with various community organizations for these events — including many Contracted Independent Organizations, local businesses and Greek life organizations — to raise money and increase community engagement. These events include a donation drive at Crozet Pizza’s Weekly Trivia, a Joybrew Coffee Cart and the premiering of the documentary “The Invisible Epidemic” about food insecurity in Virginia universities Thursday.
The CFP provides University students with access to free food and hygiene items with the goal of eliminating student food insecurity, and it also runs food drives and plans events to continue fighting food insecurity at the University. The CFP began as a program through Student Council in 2018, in partnership with Care and Support Services. CSS ultimately took over the Pantry in 2020, which assumed primary responsibility with a group of student leaders.
Student Health and Wellness houses the CFP’s main pantry, and it is stocked with food items — both perishable and non-perishable — and hygiene products. The other satellite pantry is in Newcomb at the Student Activity Center with mostly non-perishable items.
Daniel McCain, head of marketing for CFP and third-year College student, spoke about the need for the CFP at the University. He said the pantries are helpful for the many students who face food insecurity.
“At U.Va., roughly 40 percent of incoming students expressed concern about being food insecure,” McCain said. “I know that we’ve had over 10,000 individual visits to the pantry this year. So, we’re definitely seeing an increase in need.”
The CFP joined the nationwide Tackle Hunger campaign — a nonprofit movement empowering communities to fight food insecurity by supporting local charities — and launched its own Souperbowl of Caring initiative two years ago to support their food pantry operations and the University students who benefit. Tackle Hunger encourages local food charities and groups to get involved during the Super Bowl and start their own “SouperBowl of Caring” events.
“[Tackle Hunger] just said, ‘Hey for food pantries that want to get involved around the Super Bowl … you can start your own Souperbowl of Caring,’” McCain said. “We sort of took a cue from them and developed some of our own branding and stylistic stuff, just to make sure that we’re consistent with the image that we already have across Grounds.”
CFP’s goal for the SouperBowl of Caring donation drive is $25,000 in donations and 500 cans of food, which would sustain the food pantries on Grounds for the rest of the spring semester. According to Camryn Welch, head of events and volunteer coordination and third-year College Student, events are being held from Jan. 28 to Feb. 8, the day of the Super Bowl, and attendees are invited to make donations at these events.
McCain listed other ways that students can participate in the donation drive, including sharing information about the SouperBowl of Caring and the available resources the CFP provides.
“One of the big things you can do is … spread the word,” McCain said. “Just sharing all this with your friends and family and having conversations with people outside the U.Va. community about ways that they can support all of that really helps us.”
According to Welch, CIOs can also participate in CFP’s mission by partnering with the pantry to set up food drives and plan events.
“If you have a CIO that you really love and want to get more involved in, or if you’re the president of a CIO, reach out to us,” Welch said. “We can set up a canned food drive or anything like that, or even just a partnership for an event.”
All information on the SouperBowl of Caring — including an event calendar — and food pantries on Grounds can be found on the CFP website.
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