Inside a brick house on Regents Avenue is the Office of Sustainability, which works to make the Hill a more environmentally friendly place and houses the WKU Food Pantry.

The Office of Sustainability leads projects on campus to improve the school’s effect on the environment. Its website states, “As an office, we feel a moral obligation to our students, our local and global communities, and the planet to do our part in mitigating environmental problems through sustainability initiatives and by training our students to prepare for crucial emerging issues.” 

The office’s recent efforts have been led by Leslie North, who became the second director of the Office of Sustainability in 2018, and has since made several strides toward making WKU a more sustainable campus. North’s efforts have been fruitful, from earning the Hill three Green Dining certificates to qualifying the campus for international sustainability recognition for three years in a row. 

North also created the farm-to-campus program which partnered the WKU Agriculture Department with Aramark. This partnership allows student-cultivated produce, dairy and meat to be used at Fresh Food Company. According to North, the produce used is fresher and the school’s carbon footprint was greatly decreased by using locally sourced food.

“So the whole point in that from a sustainability perspective is that locally sourcing food is much better for the environment. You usually have much better products because they’re not artificially ripened after they were transported hundreds or thousands of miles. So from an environmental perspective, it was important for us to be able to establish that to be able to source at least a portion of food locally.” North said to the Herald.

The WKU Food Pantry, initially created by students of Potter College of Arts and Letters (PCAL) before being absorbed into the Office of Sustainability, provides food, toiletries and menstrual care products to anyone in the WKU community.

The pantry receives some funding from the university, but the bulk of its inventory comes from donations, North said. Anything donated to the pantry helps, she said, but pasta noodles and sauce, canned fruits and vegetables, menstrual products, cereal, canned chicken and tuna, toiletries and granola bars are the most necessary donation items. 

North encouraged anyone in need of the food pantry’s services to go get what they need. 

“We’re just another office on campus, here to help our students and staff be as successful as they can possibly be,” North said.

Additionally, the Office of Sustainability offers several student volunteering opportunities. Positions range from food pantry shelf stockers to office assistants, collecting extra food from campus restaurants, helping with the office’s Earth Day celebration and more. A full list of volunteering opportunities can be found on the office’s website.

Anyone interested in volunteering at the Office of Sustainability can email North at [email protected].

News Reporter Malone Farmer can be reached at [email protected].