Pepsi Donating $250K To Deal With Food Insecurity At HBCUs
Multinational food and beverage conglomerate PepsiCo announced $250,000 in grants Tuesday (Nov. 2) to five historically Black universities to help them tackle food insecurity on campus.
The HBCUs – Morgan State University, Prairie View A&M University, Florida A&M University, Jackson State University and Bethune-Cookman University – will receive $50,000 each. PepsiCo will distribute the funds at various events throughout November as part of its larger HBCU Tour to support HBCU students and celebrate the legacy of these universities.
PepsiCo said it tailored its donations to support each campus' unique efforts to help those who don’t always know where their next meal is coming from so they could focus on their education.
The grants will help more than 37,500 food-insecure students by funding campus food pantries, meal plans for homeless students, stipends for student staff within the pantries, and free meals to approximately 2,000 students in December during finals week.
Report: Almost Half Of All HBCU Students Facing Food Insecurity
"Our donation to tackle food insecurity is another example of our commitment to empower students and ensure their success in every aspect of their educational journey," said Kent Montgomery, Senior Vice President, Industry Relations and Multicultural Development at PepsiCo.
A Temple University study in 2020 found that hunger was a problem for 46 percent of students at 14 HBCUs. But food insecurity wasn’t the only problem. More than half of the students, 55 percent, said they were also housing insecure during the prior year.
In 2020, Kroger supermarket’s Delta Division donated $30,000 to local HBCUs Jackson State University and Tougaloo College, citing the Temple University study.
“This is an alarming statistic, and Mississippi is one of the most food-insecure states in the nation. We are honored to support our HBCUs and the work they are doing to alleviate hunger through campus food pantries,” Teresa Dickerson, manager of corporate affairs for Kroger’s Delta Division, said at that time, local station WLBT reported.
JSU is far from alone when it comes to persistent campus hunger. Morgan State conducted a campus survey in 2018 that found students were “skipping meals, borrowing food or money, and eating food that is less preferred.
