Ava Thoman: Welcome to the Community Corner where we talk about interesting topics with people in the Bowling Green Community.  I’m Ava Thoman and today we’re discussing the Falcon Food Pantry with Shannon Orr, political science professor and director of the Falcon Food Pantry.  Thanks for joining me.

Shannon Orr: Thank you so much for having me on.

Thoman: And to get started, recently SNAP benefits have been halted.  What does that mean?

Orr: So, SNAP benefits, some people may know the as food stamps, are a program that’s been created by the federal government to try to support individuals, families, seniors, veterans, people going through, maybe, some tough financial times with specifically food benefits.  So, the SNAP is loaded into a debit card that people can use to buy uncooked food at grocery stores and limited convenience stores.

Thoman: And for those affected by this, they are able to go to the Falcon Food Pantry.  Now, what does the Falcon Food Pantry provide?

Orr: So, the Falcon Food Pantry is located in Central Hall 109 and we provide a wide range of food items and hygiene items for our Falcon community.  We have a fridge where we often have things like milk, butter, drinks.  We have a freezer with frozen items, meats as well, frozen meals.  And then we also have shelves and shelves of shelf stable food; canned goods, mac and cheese, pasta, sauce.  We also have hygiene items, some things like soaps, laundry detergent and we also have diapers available for our falcons who have little ones at home.

Thoman: And then with the halting of SNAP benefits, has the food pantry had to make changes?

Orr: So, we have been preparing for the government shutdown and the impact on SNAP for the last three weeks.  So, we increased our orders.  We increased the amount of food that we have been receiving, so we are fully prepared to support as many falcons as we need to.  We have a stockpile of food that we’re prepared to put out on the shelves.  We have a delivery tomorrow of almost 7,000 lbs of food coming, so we’re ready for whatever we need to do.

Thoman: That so great to hear.  Now, how does the food pantry keep its shelves stocked?

Orr: So, we’re really lucky.  We have amazing support from our community.  Lots of our departments and student organizations, faculty, staff, our student athletes have been doing food drives for us, particularly with the SNAP shutdown.  They’ve been stepping up to try to make sure that we have lots of fun stuff on our shelves.  We have been receiving a lot of grants.  We write a lot of grant applications to support the food pantry so that we can purchase additional items.  We get most of our food from the food bank warehouses like Feeding America that are located in Toledo.  So, we get a weekly delivery of anywhere between 3,000 to 7,000 lbs of food from those warehouses.  So it takes a community to support the Falcon Food Pantry and we’re really lucky.

Thoman: And to wrap this up, who is able to shop at the food pantry?

Orr: So, any falcon can come to the Falcon Food Pantry.  We are located in Central Hall 109.  We’re open Mondays and Thursdays noon to 3 p.m. and Wednesdays 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.  Any student, faculty or staff can come and “shop” for a free bag of groceries once a week.

Thoman: Well, thank you so much for being here, for joining us.  That’s all for Community Corner, back to you in the newsroom.