CU donors, leadership rally to support campus food pantries

CU students shouldn’t have to face this painful question: Can I afford to eat today?  

But not having enough food and lacking other basic needs are hardships many students unfortunately experience every day across the university. Interruptions to SNAP benefits, depleted food banks and other intensified needs during the holiday season have increased the strain on students.   

To help, CU’s donors and leadership are stepping up to support food pantries and other essential-needs programs on all four campuses — including generous matches by the CU system, its campuses and the CU Foundation. 

Starting in November, donors began filling UCCS and CU Denver food pantries during a “Food Fight” fundraising campaign. And donors to CU Boulder and CU Anschutz are supporting food assistance and emergency funds on those campuses.   

CU’s leadership and the CU Foundation are complementing donors’ generosity — and challenging them to give more — with matching contributions up to $400,000 through the end of the year. This includes CU President Todd Saliman offering to match up to $100,000 in donors’ gifts (split equally among campuses) and another $100,000 match from the CU Foundation. CU chancellors Justin Schwartz, Jennifer Sobanet, Kenneth Christensen and Don Elliman have also contributed or are offering matches up to $50,000 each on their campuses.

The generosity began in early November with Food Fight, a spirited but friendly fundraising competition between UCCS and CU Denver, to which donors have given more than $60,000, as of mid-November. Donors’ generosity to Clyde’s Cupboard at UCCS and the CU Denver food pantry helps stock those campuses’ food pantries and support programs that ensure students have nutritious meals and other basic necessities.  

Donors to CU Boulder are supporting the campus’s Basic Needs Center, which supports students with food and housing assistance. At CU Anschutz, the Student Support Fund helps stock the campus’s food pantry and provides aid to students experiencing unanticipated hardships and emergencies. 

Food insecurity is a significant challenge every year, even when SNAP benefits are available. Nationally, about one-quarter of undergraduate students do not have reliable access to food, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Students without reliable access to food are more likely to leave school and never graduate and have lower GPAs than students who do not experience food insecurity, according to the National Institutes of Health.  

Donors can help students in need by giving to support CU’s campuses’ emergency funds here. 

To learn more about specific needs at each food bank, visit these campus websites:

• CU Boulder, Buff Pantry
• UCCS, Clyde’s Cupboard
• CU Denver, Milo’s Market
• CU Anschutz, CU Anschutz Food Pantry