Point Park expands Thanksgiving Meal Drive to help students dealing with food insecurity

PITTSBURGH — Students at Point Park University are on break for Thanksgiving, but many are staying on campus.

Some can’t afford to pay for turkey dinner. So the university is stepping in, making sure they are fed a traditional Thanksgiving meal with turkey and all the trimmings — enough for four people.

More than 30% of the university’s students report facing food insecurity since they started college.

To deal with that, Point Park started a Thanksgiving Meal Drive that provides these free meal kits for students and their families as well as for students who don’t have the money to travel home over the Thanksgiving break.

This is the third year for the program and the need has gone up.

Channel 11 went along shopping with Heather Starr Fiedler, chair of the Department of Community Engagement and Leadership at Point Park.

“So, we know it’s an issue nationwide. And so we’ve been working hard at Point Park to try to do anything we can to help our students get food, because they can’t learn if they’re not properly fed,” Fielder said.

In addition to the meal kits, students will also get break boxes that include extra nonperishable food for those staying on campus, since dining halls are closed.

The meal kits are all paid for by private donations.

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