Support the Huskie Food Pantry

To celebrate NIU's 2025 Homecoming and support the Huskie Food Pantry, we are seeking the support of the Huskie Family in the form of 118 monetary donations of any size, 118 volunteer hours signed up for, and 118 items donations. Our generous donors helped us exceed our goals in all three phases last year and we look forward to another successful campaign. 

The Huskie Food Pantry is open weekly for students to use on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4 - 6 p.m. Volunteers not only help us open the pantry weekly for students to shop, but they also help us on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings when we have food deliveries from Meijer, The Northern Illinois Food Bank, and Wal-Mart.

Monetary donations help us to purchase a whole cow that helps us supply the meat needs of students for entire semester. By working with a local farmer, we can purchase over 400 pounds of beef for approximately $4,000 for our students. The Northern Illinois Food Bank and Meijer make weekly donations of meat to the pantry, but the amount and cuts of beef we receive can change quite a bit week to week, so being able to purchase a large amount of high quality, local meat to distribute to our students will be great. All other funds raised will help us facilitate the operations of the pantry and continue to provide healthy food choices for our students.

In Spring 2025, the Huskie Food Pantry supported 2,184 visits from 632 students across 32 pantry openings, averaging 68 shoppers per session. This essential resource was made possible by 298 student volunteers who contributed more than 1,500 service hours, gaining valuable experience in teamwork, advocacy, and community service. The pantry not only met critical basic needs but also fostered student leadership while raising campus-wide awareness about food insecurity.

Vision

Aligning with Northern Illinois University's values of promoting personal, professional, and intellectual growth, the Huskie Food Pantry’s vision is to increase the opportunity for all NIU students to thrive by providing access to a sustainable, supplemental source of healthful food options and auxiliary resources.

Mission

With aid from the DeKalb, Sycamore and NIU communities, we provide exceptional student-to-student support — in a welcoming, relaxed atmosphere where students have the opportunity to obtain quality foods and resources to alleviate hunger and the associated stresses. We strive to empower students to learn from one another through genuine conversations, volunteer work and leadership opportunities.