Local Foods Gains Grant to Fund Campus Food Pantry
Annie McGehrin | February 24, 2022
Special to The Echo
Brian O’Loughlin, Anna Johnson, Chandler Holland and Annie McGehrin in Box of Baguettes Food pantry.
Local Foods Crew has some exciting news to announce with the Warren Wilson College (WWC) community! Box of Baguettes (B.o.B.) has been awarded a $1,000 grant from Sodexo Stop the Hunger Foundation and an additional $500 donated from one of the winners, WWC student Maverick Fisher-Gormley, of the Pedal Forward, Give Back Sweepstakes.
B.o.B. is the food pantry here at Warren Wilson which gives students access to free foods and goods assuring food security for the WWC community. There is a wide selection at B.o.B. every week, from canned goods to vegan ice cream; one can always find what they need.
Sodexo Stop the Hunger Foundation is a nonprofit organization with a mission to make nutritious food accessible to children in the U.S., giving them the resources to lead a healthy lifestyle. Last semester, Annie McGehrin, Local Foods Crew supervisor, and Anna Johnson, B.o.B. coordinator and AmeriCorps volunteer, completed a grant proposal for Sodexo’s On-Campus Pantry Program, where the foundation was looking to award schools who had food pantries in place to give their students and staff access to food. In turn, B.o.B. was awarded a $1,000 grant.
Additionally, Fisher-Gormley was one of nineteen winners across the country who won a $550 Amazon gift card from the Pedal Forward, Give Back Sweepstakes last semester. They were also given the opportunity to donate $500 in their name to any charity of their choice. Maverick chose to donate the $500 to B.o.B..
“I go to B.o.B. all the time, Monday through Wednesday, every time they're open and there’s always a line,” Fisher-Gormley said. “B.o.B. is so important to our community and it’s important that it keeps going.”
Maverick is on the WWC Cycling Team and plans to spend their sweepstakes winnings on new bike equipment, such as bike tubes and cycling shoes.
B.o.B. plans on using the money they were awarded and donated to get a new table, data tracking technology and special products that aren’t normally donated to the pantry.
Open Monday through Thursday, B.o.B.’s spring hours and newly-in-stock items are on their Instagram account.
Make sure to enter this semester's Sweepstakes, Share the Wealth, by April 11th. Visit Share the Wealth to have the chance to win a $500 cash prize and get the opportunity to donate $500 in your name to any community food bank of your choice.
