1. Associated Students of Madison
333 East Campus Mall, Student Activity Center Rm 4301 Madison, WI 53715
Phone: 608/265-4ASM Fax: 608/265-5637 E-mail: info@asm.wisc.edu
www.asm.wisc.edu facebook.com/ASMStudentGov Twitter: @asmstudentgovt
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Madison Laning, Chair of ASM
FEBRUARY 5th, 2016 chair@asm.wisc.edu, (920) 8898114
GRAND OPENING OF THE ASM FOOD PANTRY: “THE OPEN SEAT”
MADISON, WI — On February 5th, the first students received food from the ASM food pantry,
otherwise known as “The Open Seat”. The Open Seat is a studentrun, studentfunded,
studentled, studentinspired food pantry that serves only UWMadison students. In early 2013
students on campus started conversations around the need for a food pantry on campus for
students. ASM 21st Session recognized this need and allocated nearly $23,000 to the pantry to
cover operational, supply, and staff costs necessary to maintain consistent access.
Brooke Evans, a senior and McNair Scholar on campus, worked alongside ASM to make this
resource possible, “I first spoke publicly about my struggles with hunger on campus at the Open
Forum before the Student Services Finance Committee of ASM in November 2014. I felt it was
vital that I share with my peers my experience with hunger on campus: that it happened right
here in our own backyard, that just because it was recently addressed in the local news didn’t
mean it was a new issue, that those of us who go hungry look just like me and just like you and
we’re struggling to do our best in the classroom when we simply don’t have much to eat. No one
is invulnerable to going hungry; we as students live highstakes lives when the cost of college,
the real living costs of going to college, continue to rise. Creating the pantry would be one
crucial way we as peers could support each other to do well and complete our college education
in the face of economic precarity. We all come from different backgrounds, and campus ought
be a place in which we can all be successful.
When the Student Services Finance Committee of ASM voted to create the first food pantry our
campus has ever seen, it was also the first moment in my college career that I felt a part of this
Badger community as a firstgeneration and lowincome student. We as peers made this
possible for each other by embodying the Wisconsin Idea and seeing to it that everyone has
access to the food they need. Hunger will no longer go unaddressed at this institution, we
understand it is merely a part of life. The Open Seat is for students, by students. This is what it
means to be a Badger at the University of Wisconsin—Madison.”
Madison Laning, Chair of ASM added, “While it may look like The Open Seat only benefits a
small percentage of the student population, I can assure you this is not the case. The wellbeing
of all students on campus is connected to one another and it is imperative that we provide
services to ensure healthy lives and healthy brains in the classroom.”
The Open Seat hours can be found online at www.asm.wisc.edu/resources/foodpantry/.
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