Virginia Peninsula Community College has received an $8,928 grant from the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV) to support its on-campus food pantries, also known as Care Cupboards.
The one-time award is part of SCHEV’s Hunger-Free Campus grant program, which provides funding to public and private nonprofit colleges across the commonwealth to help address food insecurity among students. The program aims to promote sustainable campus solutions, raise awareness of available resources and build partnerships at federal, state and local levels.
Sophia King of VPCC’s Enrollment Management and Student Success (EMSS) division wrote the grant application to secure the funding. She explained while the College partners with the Virginia Peninsula Food Bank, which supplies donated food at no cost, other sources help the pantries operate. Additional support comes from grants and donations by faculty, staff, alumni and community members.
The new award is a boost for operations. As a Single Stop program assistant and coach, King manages the food pantries and is excited about the funding.
“It’s going to be instrumental in providing food items for the students here on campus. We have some students who come in on a very consistent basis, an
d I can tell … what the favorite food items are. So, for certain items, we’ll be able to make sure we can provide those on a consistent basis,” she said, expressing appreciation to SCHEV and noting the grant will help purchase in-demand items as a complement to food bank offerings.
“We have a lot of high school students here on campus as well, and they come in just to grab a snack, then they go to class. We also have people who actually need groceries,” she added. “So that $8,000+ will go a long way to serve our students … to make sure we have the sustenance they need for themselves and their families.”
King said the grant application, submitted in late 2025, required extensive data on student need and pantry operations.
She cited data indicating an estimated 8% of VPCC students experience food insecurity, based on food pantry usage. As of the fall 2025 census, VPCC enrolled 6,639 undergraduate students, including 1,877 Pell Grant recipients.
Statistics also showed 562 students accessed the College’s food pantries in 2025. That’s up from 350 students in 2024, she added.
VPCC has one Care Cupboard at its Hampton Campus and another at the Historic Triangle Campus in Williamsburg. Both pantries provide free food and personal hygiene items to students, faculty, staff and community members. The pantries are managed by two EMSS staff members, with support from a student volunteer in Hampton, noted King. Staff visit the Virginia Peninsula Food Bank each week to restock shelves, and the partnership also provides gift cards to help students purchase holiday meals.
She said thanks to the food bank’s Healthy Pantry Initiative, the College received another grant totaling $2,470. King, who prepared and submitted the grant application, said the funds will go toward equipment for the Historic Triangle Campus pantry.
“We will use the funds to purchase a refrigerator/freezer … which will allow us to provide fresh fruits and vegetables and prepared frozen meals for the students,” she noted, expressing appreciation to the Virginia Peninsula Food Bank.
King said the new funds will help ensure that more students have reliable access to nutritious food, supporting their well-being and academic success.
“The whole purpose of the food pantry is to make sure the students can have their weekly or daily needs for food met. Because some of them, honestly, some come in here because they have not eaten anything all day long,” she said, adding the funds could also help support student surveys being considered to better identify preferred foods and items to stock.