Livingstone College and Food Lion Feeds Unveil Campus Food Pantry

SALISBURY, N.C., Feb. 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Livingstone College, in partnership with Food Lion Feeds, opened a food pantry today to address student hunger issues on campus. The pantry is located in Ballard Hall on the Livingstone College campus and will be open to students from 1 to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays.    

"We're excited to partner with Food Lion Feeds to offer an on-campus food pantry for our commuting students," said Livingstone College President Dr. Jimmy R. Jenkins, Sr. "The Blue Bear Pantry will assist our students by enabling them to have well-balanced diets that are consistent with maintaining proper nourishment, which is part of our Holistic College approach to learning."

"Students who don't live on campus have additional financial obligations to handle, and we're certain the food pantry will help ease challenges that may be associated with that," Jenkins continued. "It's no secret that a student with a healthy body and mind is more likely to perform better in the classroom than one who is deficient. We're grateful for any partnership that will help our students achieve success here at Livingstone."

Livingstone now becomes among 100 campuses nationwide that have food pantries to help eliminate hunger.

Food Lion Feeds donated more than 5,000 meals to stock the shelves at the pantry before opening its doors to students today and had local store associates help prepare the pantry for the grand opening. The pantry is expected to serve approximately 225 students each week. 

"Food Lion is honored to partner with Livingstone College to open this pantry so that no student will ever have to choose between dinner and receiving an education," said Meg Ham, president of Food Lion. "Food Lion is committed to working with local partners to help end hunger in our communities, and recent data from Feeding America suggests that nearly ten percent of food bank clients are college students.  By providing this support, we are able to help students bridge the hunger gap while in school."

The Livingstone pantry is among a dozen college pantries in North Carolina, according to publicly available data.  In addition to Livingstone, Food Lion Feeds supports three other college campus pantries.  

About Food Lion
Food Lion, based in Salisbury, N.C., since 1957, has more than 1,100 stores in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states and employs more than 63,000 associates. By leveraging its longstanding heritage of low prices and convenient locations, Food Lion is working to own the easiest full shop grocery experience in the Southeast, anchored by a strong commitment to affordability, freshness and the communities it serves. Through Food Lion Feeds, the company has committed to provide 500 million meals to individuals and families in need by the end of 2020. Food Lion is a company of Delhaize America, the U.S. division of Brussels-based Delhaize Group (NYSE: DEG). For more information, visit www.foodlion.com.  

About Livingstone
Livingstone College was originally founded in 1879 as Zion Wesley Institute by a group of African Methodist Episcopal Zion ministers in Concord, N.C. The College later relocated to Salisbury, N.C., in 1882 and was eventually renamed for David Livingstone, a British Christian missionary, philanthropist and African explorer. The Institution's founding president was Dr. Joseph Charles Price, who served from 1882-1893. A private, co-educational institution, Livingstone is proud of its Holistic College approach to learning and of being a member institution of the United Negro College Fund. For more information, visit www.livingstone.edu.  

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SOURCE Food Lion

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