Thanksgiving Resources: Grab a Break Bag!

Oklahoma Christian University’s food pantry, known as Talon’s Table, serves students, faculty, and staff throughout the school year on school breaks.

Talon’s Table was established in fall of 2023. A grant from OCWA, Oklahoma Christian Women’s Association helped make this happen. Hannah Leftwich, senior director of student success and academic outreach has helped guide this venture.

“One in four, up to one in five, college students have food insecurity. Lots of students are working multiple jobs, and then the branch closes during breaks, which is understandable, but that leaves a lot of students on campus without ways to get food, or if they work late and the branch is closed or they don’t have enough money, this is meant to kind of help close that gap,” Leftwich said.

Throughout the school year, Talon’s Table remains open so students can conveniently pick up whatever they need, including fresh produce, dairy, and nonperishable food items. As government funding for programs like SNAP has been suspended, Talon’s Table has been supporting students through the generosity of donations.

“We know that the recent government shutdown and the cost of everything has increased. We’ve been blessed to be able to have more ability to support not just our students, but faculty and staff,” Leftwich said. “We’ve had a lot of generous donations over the last semester. It’s really exciting and kind of humbling that we have the ability to expand just beyond those students’ needs.” 

The idea behind the pantry is to address food insecurity among college students, many of whom work multiple jobs and struggle during breaks. Not only during the school year, but also on school breaks, the food pantry has been able to provide break bags for those staying on campus.

“Over fall break, we handed out 110 break bags when we had only prepared 50. That night I had to run to the grocery store, once we handed all of those out, we restocked so we could hand out another 60 the next day,” Leftwich said.

Students are welcome to visit the pantry once a week to pick up needed items. Additionally, break bags are available for pickup on the Thursday and Friday before every school break. The pantry and break bags are located in the Student Success Center.

“Break bags will be ready for pickup Thursday and Friday afternoon of this week. But, if students just want to come and get food from the pantry, they can come once a week, they can get about 20 items, both refrigerated and shelf stable,” Leftwich said. “This is even open to students that are not even on break. They can just come throughout the semester. No questions asked.”