A group of WKU students are doing a food drive to help combat food insecurity among students and children.

A group of four students, Naiya Sims, Jacqueline Rodriguez, Valerie Feldker and Derrick Chhouk, have joined with the Office of Sustainability and the WKU Child Care Center to hold a food drive to help with food insecurity. 

The drive is a semester project in Honors Citizen and Self. They picked an issue they wanted to assess and felt they could do something to help remedy this problem.

Sims said food insecurity is not only a lack of food availability, but also a lack of healthy foods.

“[Food insecurity] is super prevalent among college students,” Rodriguez said. “The national average is 12.3% of families, but colleges are reporting 20-50% of students experience it.”

A donation table will be set up at Centennial Mall from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. on March 16, 25 and 30 and on April 8. They will be taking donations 24/7 at drop boxes in DSU and possibly Ogden.

The group has an Instagram with lists of preferred donations for the Office of Sustainability @wku_food_drive. 

“If a family, or someone, who’s off campus wants to donate we’ll take those as well,” Rodriguez said.

The group will also be going to various campus organizations to ask for donations.

The group said donations may be eligible for service hours, but students should check with their relevant club or organization first.

For any questions about donations, reach out to Naiya Sims at [email protected] or Jacqueline Rodrigues at [email protected].