GMC News

GMC-Augusta’s “Free Little Pantry” Wins Award

GMC-Augusta’s “Free Little Pantry” Wins Award

The Community Outreach Club at Georgia Military College’s Augusta Campus launched the “Free Little Pantry” on Thursday, February 16, 2017 as a way to help students, faculty, and staff who may be in need of food, personal items, or household goods. The idea is a spinoff of the Free Little Library concept and a video that was circulating on social media from a woman in Fayetteville, AR who made her idea a reality with the help of her church.
The Community Outreach Club, made up of student volunteers and a Club Advisor, worked to repurpose a donated cabinet into a donation center where students, faculty, and staff could donate items they had to give away or to take any item they might need. The Pantry is currently placed in the main entrance lobby.  Items circulate and rotate on a daily basis. On any given day, there may be items such as toothpaste, toilet paper, soap, microwaveable popcorn, canned vegetables and many other food items, or bottled water.

Georgia Military College-Augusta’s Financial Aid Department attended the Georgia Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (GASFAA) Conference May 29, 2019 – May 31, 2019. Each year, the GASFAA Conference takes on a community service project. This year, the community service project committee chose to support college campuses that have a food pantry on campus for their students and collect items from the conference attendees. Various college food pantries submitted an application for consideration. GMC-Augusta submitted an application for consideration and was selected! The Augusta Campus Financial Aid Department staff came home from the conference with Kroger gift cards and five boxes of food for the Free Little Pantry. What an honor to be selected!