The Associated Students of the University of Nevada and the University of Nevada, Reno's Center for Student Engagement will have a lot more of the necessary goods to fight hunger thanks to a newly created partnership with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada. Now ASUN and the Center for Student Engagement will be able to provide a larger amount and variety of healthy and fresh food options including things they have not been able to provide before, such as dairy and produce.

While newly-appointed ASUN President Caden Fabbi was the speaker of the ASUN senate, he took a trip to the University of California, Davis to check out their student-run businesses as well as other aspects of their school. When he saw their food pantry stocked with fresh produce and dairy - while the University was only stocking nonperishables - he yearned to be able to offer something similar.

Soon after his trip, Fabbi volunteered at the Northern Nevada Food Bank, never expecting to match one of the University's ongoing needs with a perfectly corresponding community partner.

"We were volunteering there and I thought, ‘might as well ask them about a potential partnership,'" Fabbi said. "I asked one of the people working there and she said they had been trying to get something started at the University for a really long time. I responded, ‘Okay, perfect. Let's do it."

Fabbi worked with Amy Koeckes, associate director of the Center for Student Engagement, and Chris Partridge, coordinator for student engagement - programs and services, in implementing the partnership.

"The Food Pantry is a service on campus that provides assistance to students who are struggling to afford groceries," Partridge said. "We never want students to go hungry, have to skip meals or stress out about where their next meal is coming from while they're trying to go to school. We know that it can be a challenge for some students."

This new partnership will allow The Food Pantry at the University to continue to grow and continue to meet the growing student and faculty need for emergency food, which has steadily been increasing. The number of visits to the Food Pantry almost doubled in the past two years, from 55 visits to the Food Pantry in fall of 2012 to 90 visits in fall of 2014.

"We see this as a game-changer for the Food Pantry," Koeckes said. "This partnership is adding more food and resources to be able to distribute food to students and faculty on campus."

To donate food please contact the ASUN Center for Student Engagement or deposit non-perishable food items in one of the bins located at the Joe Crowley Student Union, Thompson Building and Downunder Café.