The Marshall University food pantry, opened during the fall semester, continues to feed the Huntington community with the help of Marshall and community member volunteers. 

Marshall’s food pantry in the Tri-State MRI building at 1802 6th Avenue is open to the community on Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Fridays from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and on every third Saturday of the month from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

“Right now, I think that we are able to serve everyone who has a need within the timeframe that we’re open, but if we were to have more people with a need, and more volunteers, we could definitely expand our hours of operation,” Dr. Kelli Williams, chair of the dietetics program at Marshall, said.

The food pantry has volunteers that are students, as well as volunteers from the community, Williams said. She said the pantry welcomes more volunteers and needs volunteers to help during its operation hours, as well as volunteers for logging food, putting items away and even organizing a food drive. 

“We usually have one or two volunteers for days that the pantry is open,” Sydney Mangialetti, a dietetics student at Marshall and manager of the food pantry, said. “Usually, the volunteers are dietetics students or dietetics interns.”

Mangialetti said the food pantry staff prefers donations be brought during operational hours. She said most of the food, except for milk, is provided just by people who donate. The Marshall Thundering Herd women’s basketball team has donated by holding a food drive during one of their games and bringing all the donations to the pantry during operational hours, Mangialetti said.

“We are always accepting donations, as well as taking on volunteers,” Mangialetti said. Williams said there’s always someone there during the hours of operation that will gladly take donations, but if an individual is unable to come during those hours, the food pantry’s staff would be happy to schedule a time to meet with them.

Any individuals who would like to become a volunteer for Marshall’s food pantry, can contact Mangialetti at [email protected] or Williams at [email protected].

Piper White can be contacted at [email protected].