The Ole Miss Food Bank, which recently changed its name to Grove Grocery, has struggled to meet the demand from students as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Demand for Grove Grocery’s services has grown exponentially in recent months. Economic downturn has left many students, especially those working in the service industry, struggling to afford basic necessities like food.

Grove Grocery director Chloe Grant said the influx has stretched the Grocery thin.

“We spend roughly $2500 every month at Kroger just buying groceries to stock the food pantry, and even with that amount of spending, our supply is very limited,” Grant said. “So many more people are using the food pantry than normal because of the pandemic. In the past, not a lot of people knew the food pantry existed, so it’s great that more people know about it, but we’re going through our supply a lot quicker.”

Between January and March, Grove Grocery distributed an average of 140 meals per week. From March 6 to May 10, the average grew to  425 meals per week, nearly three times greater than before classes moved online last semester.

Since May 11, they have distributed an average of 287 meals per week and expect an increase. 

A lack of recurring donations is a major issue for the food bank, given that they heavily rely on community support. Grant said the Grocery appreciates the donations they receive, but most of the time, those are not enough. 

“We really need some sort of constant source of income,” Grant said. “Whether that’s recurring donations, more support from the university, grants from places like Kroger or Walmart or a partnership with Mid-South Food Bank. Really anything where we know we will be able to continually be able to provide support.”

The Grocery is currently seeking a grant from Kroger which would allow them to purchase groceries from the grant funds rather than the Grocery’s financial reserve. They received a grant of $11,000 from Kroger in August 2019 and spent the funds over the course of a year.

Tina Truong is the staff chair for Grove Grocery. One of her responsibilities is to coordinate  volunteers’ work schedules for the week. When allocating time slots for the first week of classes, she left some unfilled, predicting that demand would be low.

“I was wrong,” Truong said. “The first day, I just saw orders racked all the way down the list and I got super stressed out. I was like, ‘Where am I going to find volunteers to fill those shifts?’”

It has been difficult for the food bank to train new volunteers because of COVID-19 social distancing guidelines, but the Grocery has seen a higher number of volunteers than usual, making the workload slightly more manageable.

“As of right now, we probably have half the number (of volunteers) that we did last year, and it’s only the fourth week of school. There has definitely been exponential growth,” Truong said.

Grant and Truong hope that the name change will attract more people to donate and volunteer at the Grocery this year. 

“We think the name food pantry or food bank can be very stigmatizing for people,” Grant said. “We tried to go with a name that is more welcoming for students — a bit more inviting.”

Grove Grocery will be holding a meal swipe drive starting September 21 where students can donate their Ole Miss meal swipes through the GET app.