This month, Kroger shoppers in Oxford will have the opportunity to round-up their total or make a donation to benefit Grove Grocery, the University of Mississippi’s campus food pantry.
Established in 2013, Grove Grocery helps alleviate food insecurity among the university’s student and faculty population.
“We give out canned food, refrigerated food, frozen food, but we also have hygiene products and meal swipes as well,” Capri Lobotzke, student director of the pantry and junior biomedical engineering major, said. “We offer delivery options and pickup options, so we cater to all the options for students here.”
The round-up program is only the latest in a series of partnerships between the pantry and Kroger.
“We’ve been with Kroger for the past few years, at least since COVID,” Lobotzke said. “We shop there every other week and spend about $4,000 shopping for the pantry. It’s been a great partnership, not only opening up their store for us to shop in but also for the donations they have made.”
Grove Grocery received approximately $10,000 in donations from Kroger during the round-up campaign from last year, Lobotzke said.
There are plenty of pressing needs for the food pantry.
“One of our biggest struggles has been keeping food in the pantry this year,” Lobotzke said. “Within just a couple days, we’ll be totally out even buying such a large amount of food.”
Lobotzke said that Grove Grocery is working on building more partnerships with the community.
“This money will help us build these partnerships as well as with buying the goods that patrons want and need,” Lobotzke said.
Beyond funding the existing operations of the food pantry, donations from this month will help fund new initiatives as well.
“We also have a new food recovery program that we’re working on,” she said. “We’re trying to cut down on the large amount of food waste on campus. This money will help us develop this program as well.”
These donations are only one way to help Grove Grocery. Students interested in volunteering for the organization are encouraged to email grovegrocery@go.olemiss.edu or visit the pantry’s social media pages for more information.
In addition, students are encouraged to donate any leftover meal swipes to the pantry before the end of the semester. This can be done through the GET app.
