‘Food Fight’ benefits UIC Pop-Up Pantry

The strength, kindness and unity of the UIC community shined brightly in fall 2019 with multiple departments, units and individuals donating hundreds of food items to the UIC Pop-Up Pantry. 

This past fall, the Wellness Center invited three departments to participate in the inaugural 2019 Food Fight, a fun food drive, to benefit the UIC Pop-Up Pantry. 

The three competitors were: Intercollegiate Athletics, University Library and the UIC Bookstore. After an intense and good-natured Food Fight, the winner was the University Library with 1,160 collected food items. A close second was Intercollegiate Athletics with 1,089 items, and the UIC Bookstore came in third with a creative retail twist on the traditional food drive.

All of these collective efforts show that a phrase coined years ago by the Wellness Center is still true: “You can’t spell community without UIC.”

The Wellness Center staff truly appreciates you taking time out of a busy day to bring food from your pantry and to share it with ours.

Your thoughtfulness helps to: reduce student stress, worry and anxiety; it helps students to care for their children; and it helps to support the cognitive function needed to academically succeed. During the 2018-2019 academic year, the Wellness Center helped to meet basic student needs by managing and distributing over 32,000 pounds of food.