LYNCHBURG, Va. – A local university has lots of food on its campus it no longer needs.
Liberty University planned to feed 15,000 students after spring break. Now, the campus looks pretty empty.
There’s a limited number of students floating around on campus using the dining services and taking to-go boxes back to their dorms.
On Friday, Sodexo, Liberty’s dining provider, partnered with the school to donate $20,000 worth of fresh and packaged food they won’t need anymore.
Most of it will go to Lynchburg’s Salvation Army.
“We’ve been in Lynchburg for decades now and want to continue to have a strong relationship with the community and really serving here. And it’s important to us that we’re helping those in need right now because of this global pandemic,” said Ryan Wheeler the marketing manager for Sodexo.
Downtown restaurants like White Hart Café came to pick up a few boxes.
The coffee shop has opened its kitchen to feed children and their families dinner, outside of the breakfast and lunch meals that Lynchburg City Schools provides during the week.
“This donation is going to help us feed 250 folks on Tuesday evening and maybe even more. It’s going to help us come up with a menu,” said Daniel Coco, the executive manager at White Hart Café.
Liberty University told 10 News they have enough food to feed the current students on campus. The Salvation Army will donate the food to the other organizations they work with.