What has been the most prominent part of my experience at Governor’s school thus far? Other than the academics (of course) I can’t help but think of D2, our dining facility. We are provided with an abundance of meal options three times a day. I’ve enjoyed the orange chicken so much that when I went to the counter the other day the server greeted me saying, “the usual?” This goes to show how often I venture to D2, and that counter specifically, but I only realized recently how much I took D2 and its accessibility to food for granted.

A few days ago we had a class on food security taught by Kas Church who works for VT Engage. She opened my eyes to the prevalence of food insecurity around Virginia Tech which is a much bigger issue than I had expected. Kas works to run “The Market” a food system on campus that puts together bags of meals for students to pick up weekly. I got the opportunity to go to her office and pack some of these food filled bags myself. Being there just for two hours left me impressed at how much effort Kas has put into this market. I was most definitely inspired by the work she does to assist students on campus who are in need of food.

Learning about food insecurity has had a lasting effect on me; once I leave governor’s school I want to seek out a similar organization in my area to contribute to that has the same aspirations as “The Market” does. In the future when I go to college whether it is at Tech or not I would like to contribute to the food pantry to try and combat this extremely prevalent problem that is faced nationwide.

-EW