The current story is a report on the Knight Pantry that is currently active in the role of a service intended to help the University of Central Florida (UCF) students with food and clothes. The story of this organization shows that the Knight Pantry service turned out to be a great addition to the Main Campus due to its constant willingness to assist and thorough inclusion of student donations. Without Knight Pantry, UCF would be most likely struggling with finding the necessary resources to support local students, especially the ones who were not in trouble before the COVID19 pandemic. Overall, the organization seems to be doing a great job finding the best ways to provide students with free food and clothes. This report features the opinions of two UCF students who recurrently donate to the Knight Pantry organization and the view of the Associate Director of Knight Pantry.
For instance, Vicky Ortiz Batson, a proposal manager for the College of Optics and Photonics, claims that she has been donating to Knight Pantry for at least seven or eight years now. Batson donates clothes and food to the organization at least one time per annum. She believes that some extra help is what many students need but have no intention of sharing with the others around them because they feel like it would make people too concerned with the issues that do not really affect them. According to Batson (2020), “times are tougher now, and it is harder out there, tuition is more, hourly rates at jobs haven’t really increased, and not everyone’s parents can pay for everything.” Donating to Knight Pantry makes it a great thing to address the need to make a contribution and actually subsidize the lives of those who are on their own, trying to make their ends meet while also having to study hard. The idea that Batson promotes is that fellow Knights should pass along the idea of donations and promote the view of helping others without waiting for anything in return.
Another person who recurrently donates to the Knight Pantry organization is Ruby Semple, a Junior Medical Laboratory Sciences student. She has been with the Knights since her freshman year. Even though Semple was rather inconsistent with her donations, she believes that the fact of actually contributing to one’s life is what matters most when it comes to the Knight Pantry organization. The main reason for Ruby to start donating was that she always had some extra food and never wanted it to go to waste (Semple, 2020). She was never hesitant about the fact that she could help someone else struggling with their food and clothes. As per Semple’s (2020) comments, “it can be an emotional time, and I know some people could feel ashamed even though it’s help that they need.” This ultimately means that people should help each other, and the COVID19 pandemic is a perfect opportunity for students or anyone beyond UCF to come together and make life better for everyone in need.
As for Jeannie Kiriwas, the Associate Director for Knights Pantry, she was certain that the organization should not cease its operations even during the pandemic because there would be more than enough students who would have trouble with food and clothes. The number of donations that the organization received during the coronavirus outbreak increased significantly, which also shows that much attention is being paid to the significance of joint efforts. According to Kiriwas (2020), the number of homeless students continues to increase, especially due to the pandemic conditions, so it should be entirely understandable that in order to succeed, the organization would have to mobilize its resources and focus on every particular student. “There can be students who had a house before, but now they don’t,” says Kiriwas, hinting at the fact that house payments and tuition could become mutually exclusive. That would force them to choose between two essential parts of their life that cannot be ignored or evaded. With almost 300 students reached by Knight Pantry, it may be safe to say that the organization keeps track perfectly of both on-campus and outside-of-campus students. The best thing is that Knight Pantry is available in seven different locations and not just the Main Campus, which include Lake Nona, Downtown UCF, and several other premises on other campuses.
The story of the Knight Pantry organization shows how important it is to go out your way from time to time and ensure that the ones close to you receive enough assistance and resources to survive and maintain positive wellbeing. The current pandemic shows that Knight Pantry picked the right approach to reach out to UCF students, as the majority of individuals on campus now have access to everything they want and need. Joint efforts are essential if we want to improve our ways of living and become a true part of society that has the right and the ability to do something life-changing without even batting an eye. Jeannie Kiriwas is an exemplary leader that was able to achieve the best outcomes for her organization while ensuring that Knight Pantry is going to become more than a non-profit organization but rather a team of individuals glued by the same worldviews and aspirations.
References
Batson, V. O. (2020). The story and purpose of the Knight Pantry [In person]. University of Central Florida.
Kiriwas, J. (2020). The Story and Purpose of the Knight Pantry [In person]. University of Central Florida.
Semple, R. (2020). The Story and Purpose of the Knight Pantry [In person]. University of Central Florida.