Alabama College Student Runs After-Hours Food Pantry For Fellow Classmates

Not all superheroes wear capes.

This week’s BA black excellence blog is dedicated to a student at Alabama A&M University.

College is an experience of a lifetime. If you have the opportunity to go to college, I say, go for it. Although, the experience isn’t for everyone, it’s an experience nonetheless. You learn things about yourself that you probably would have never discovered. You will meet lifelong friends that you probably wouldn’t have never crossed paths with. The freedom to do whatever you want, but you will develop the discipline you need to function in the real world.

However, there are also cons. As a college student, you are given a meal plan that is included in your tuition. With the meal plan, you can eat almost anywhere on campus with one swipe of your meal card. But, what happens when the dinning halls are closed and the only places that are open cost money? You have two options, pay for it or starve.

However, if you are a student at Alabama A&M University, you may have an additional option.

Apparently, after noticing a group of students continuously going to bed hungry, a student at Alabama A&M University started a donation-based food pantry to help his fellow classmates.

“They didn’t have any food,” the student told ABC News. “The cafeteria here closes pretty early, and a lot of students here don’t have the money to go outside of campus to eat. I wanted to cater to those students.”

According to reports, 20-year-old Justin Franks, used $40 of his own money to kick off his pantry, based out of his room. Since then, the small $40 stash has grown and multiplied into a huge food pantry out of an old mail room in the dorm.

“After I posted about it on Facebook, it just exploded from there,” he said. “We started getting donations from so many people: sororities, alumni and others in the community.”

The pantry is open from 6 p.m. when the cafeteria closes, until 11 p.m.

“A lot of students are busy and might not have time to get to the cafeteria before it closes, but it’s important they still get to eat,” Franks said. Students “have come up to me and said how very grateful and appreciative they were for what I’ve started since they’re financially unable to eat out,” he added.

According to ABC, Franks’ life is pretty busy as a full-time student who also works three part-time jobs. However, he said he will continue to always make time to help others.

“‘Service Is Sovereignty’ is our school’s motto and I want to live up to that,” he said. “I’m hoping that we can keep expanding the pantry and that it’ll continue for years to come.”