Vriseyda Calzada, University Recreation student program assistant, holds a canned good that was donated last Wednesday at the University Recreation Annex on the Brownsville campus. Estefania Ramirez/THE RIDER PHOTOS
The holidays are back and so are two canned food drives that aim to collect goods for the UTRGV Student Food pantry.
The University Recreation Center is collecting food through Wednesday, according to Samantha Gonzalez, UREC business operation and engagement coordinator.
“Most students may not know that the food pantry is available to them, and so when we do something like this, it’s not just about donating the cans to the students … it’s also to bring awareness that this is available to them,” Gonzalez said. “That’s why the UREC loves to do things like this.”
Gonzalez said the recreation center usually participates in a departmentwide competition to bring in donations.
“I asked, ‘Hey, are we doing that competition that we usually do? Because I know that it benefits the students,’” she said. “They were like, ‘Actually, we haven’t heard anything, but if you guys would love to have one, like, do your own drive. We’re totally OK with that.’”
Gonzalez said there are three food categories the Student Food Pantry accepts: canned, dry and other.
“Inside of those categories, they have things such as fruits and vegetables, beans, soup,” she said. “And for dry food, they have, like, oatmeal, Pop-Tarts, chips, Goldfish. And then other foods would be things like juice, peanut butter, jelly, pasta sauce, water.”
Donations can be made near the front desk in the University Recreation Center on the Edinburg campus and in Texas Southmost College Recreation Center Room 2.610, which is in the academic wing of the building on the second floor.
Kindness for Cans is an initiative organized by Parking and Transportation to void parking citations and collect goods for the Student Food Pantry.
Rodney Gomez, UTRGV Parking and Transportation executive director, said the initiative runs from Nov. 27 to Dec. 1 and helps the campus community not only by collecting food for the pantry, but by voiding one qualifying parking citation for every 10 cans donated.
Anyone with a UTRGV parking citation can participate, and Gomez encourages people to donate even if they do not have a ticket.
Graphic design junior Jessica Chavarria said she has never used the food pantry before but that it is important because “there’s a lot of students that don’t have the resources that they need.”
“Having the opportunity to have those resources through the school is very good for them so they can feel there is someone that is there for them,” Chavarria said.
She said the Kindness for Cans initiative is a good opportunity for people to donate to the food pantry and “help the families that don’t have those resources.”
“We’re just trying to, you know, help students out to feel less food insecure,” Gomez said. “ … As a general project to help students out during the holidays, we realize that, sometimes, they have citations that are on their records and that could present a burden.”
Gomez said there are six citations that qualify for the program:
–displaying an expired decal
–double or multiple parking
–failure to display a current parking permit
–improper zone parking
–parking with a permit not properly affixed to a windshield
–unpaid Luke pay station.
“We do not have a limit,” Gomez replied when asked if there is a limit to how many citations can be voided. “So, as long as they, you know, qualify under the program, and a student brings 10 cans for each citation, then there’s really no limit. But most students don’t have more than two or three, if any, in their record.”
Individuals who plan to participate can make donations at the UTRGV Parking and Transportation offices located in the Vaquero Plaza on West University Boulevard in Brownsville and in Rio Grande Center for Manufacturing Room 135 on the Edinburg campus.
Gomez said donations should be in good condition with clear labels.
“It could be vegetables, beans, chili, tuna fish is good,” he said. “I mean, they sell canned proteins as well, like chicken and fish. Things like that. So, anything that a student [would] like to eat.”
Gomez said this is the fourth time the program runs and that in Spring 2023, the department collected 5,319 cans and voided over $27,000 in parking citations.
“A large segment of the student population … needs access to the food pantry,” he said. “We already know that there’s a link between having enough nourishment and of nutrients in your body and being able to be an effective student. … It’s one less thing to worry about if you have enough food.”
