Thomas More’s Resource & Support Coalition recently received a $10,000 grant from ADM Cares that will support efforts to reduce food insecurity on campus. ADM Cares is the charitable arm of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), a global company specializing in food and nutrition processing that operates a hub in Erlanger, Ky.

The grant from ADM Cares will help boost efforts at the Compassion Pantry, the student-led food pantry that acts as a safety net to help ensure students at Thomas More have access to necessities, including food and personal hygiene supplies. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, an estimated 23% of college students nationwide, or 3.8 million, experienced food insecurity in 2020, the most recent year for which data was available.

A majority of students reporting food insecurity said they have skipped meals or eaten less than they should because they simply could not afford food. The Government Accountability Office also found that fewer than two in five food-insecure students met the criteria for potentially being eligible for benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (known as “SNAP” or commonly referred to as “food stamps”).

Recognizing the challenges, the Monsignor Cleves University Honors Program launched the Compassion Pantry in its current location on the third floor of the Administration Building during the 2021-22 academic year. More recently, the James Graham Brown Scholars (JGBS) have undertaken maintaining and enhancing the pantry for current and future students.

“The goal number of meals that this grant will provide is roughly 4,750. Another goal for the ADM Cares grant is to create meal kits for adult and graduate students. This may look like shelf-stable ingredients for spaghetti in a zip-lock bag. This option will not only feed the adult or graduate student, but can also allow them to serve a meal to their family,” Huser says.

Emilee Huser, coordinator for career planning, is chair of the Resource & Support Coalition (RSC), the faculty and staff-led group that applied for the ADM Cares grant. She explains that the pantry was selected as a focus area because of its potential impact on graduate, adult, or other non-traditional students who are more likely to experience food insecurity.

Beginning in the 2025-26 academic year, all traditional undergraduate students at Thomas More are automatically enrolled in an all-access dining plan, part of the holistic suite of benefits included in the Saints Essentials program. Unlimited access to the dining hall and one meal swipe per day at the campus café locations does reduce food insecurity among this student population, but Huser says there are still students who struggle.

“Food services are not always open and available to the students,” Huser explained. “They have operating hours that some students have to work around while juggling school, work, and sports.” Others, such as international students or certain student-athletes, Huser says, elect to stay on campus during the summer months and holiday breaks when on-campus dining services close.

“With the support of ADM Cares, the Compassion Pantry will expand its reach to the adult and grad school students and provide summer support. We are hoping to expand number of meals [provided] by 1,500 during the school year and 3,250 meals in the summer,” Huser stated.

“Food insecurity is important because it often goes unseen,” said Noah Francis ’26, who’s also been working to enhance the pantry’s capacity as Compassion Pantry co-director. “It affects everyday functioning, like athletic performance and attention to classwork, and frequently remains unaddressed.”

Throughout the fall 2025 semester, Francis and fellow co-director MaryKay Birtcil ’26 have led an effort to expand the Compassion Pantry’s physical capacity by doubling its space, investing in high-quality food storage bins, and reorganizing a nearby storage closet to create more space for donations.

“With this new space, our goal is to develop an electronic-tracking system of our inventory and to identify specific needs our students may have. We want to understand the specific needs of those we serve and have a more focused approach so that we can be more efficient,” Francis said. “With newly established committees in partnership with the RSC, we are excited to see what changes and transformations we can develop in the spring.”

You can find more news and information about the Compassion Pantry at Thomas More on Instagram, @tmucompassionpantry. For those interested in joining the efforts to reduce food insecurity on campus, organizers have created an Amazon Wishlist with a list of donations needed at tmuky.us/pantrygift.