University of Tampa students try to feed homeless with meal plan credits, school says it's against policy
TAMPA, Fla. - Dozens of students at The University of Tampa joined together to try and feed the homeless using what they have. In this case, students were using leftover meal credits from the dining hall to take food to go help the hungry.
What we know:
Dorian Buckley and Rowan Williams, two University of Tampa students, founded Meals that Matter. The students started it a month ago after recruiting their friends to help donate meals. They started with around 30 meals at first.
"We drove around the city and anybody on corners or that looked like they were in need of a warm meal we dropped them off to them," Buckley said.
All of this, because students were frequently not using meal credits and these young men wanted to help the community.
"We noticed that students at the university had meals left over at the end of the week, often eight, 10, and 12 left over," Buckley said.
Those meals are pre-paid and credits that expire at the end of the week.
Dig deeper:
The student-sponsored program grew over the last month. Students that wanted to donate meal swipes to this program ordered a meal on Grubhub through the student dining services.
These students set their pick-up name as either Dorian Buckley or Rowan Williams, so those organizers can pick up the food. Buckley, Williams and a rotating group of volunteers then take the food to a parking lot and hand it out to those in need.
Last week was the biggest week for the students yet.
"We had over 200 meals donated, a combination of meal swipes and students that made Cuban sandwiches, and we had full peanut butter and jelly meals that were put together by other students," Buckley said.
Big picture view:
The students ran into a problem, though. The organizers started informing the food service workers of their intention to place hundreds of orders at one time and this flagged a review.
Students said the program was shut down, because students were placing orders under other people's names. The University of Tampa dining rules said students are not allowed to use their Spartan card meal swipes on other people.
Courtesy: Dorian Buckley
"That's never been our goal," Buckley said. "To undercut the university's profits."
Still, students tried to place the orders on Friday but say the food ended up in the trash and Grubhub ordering was turned off for those dining halls.
"We'd like to work with the university to create a policy that works with this," Buckley said.
Despite this setback, students went out and bought food to hand out on Friday and dozens of people benefited.
"We've always been trying to just do a good thing for the Tampa community," Buckley said.
"They open their hearts and their pocketbooks to make this happen," Harper said. "And it's an awesome thing."
What they're saying:
Jacquelyn Harper helps the homeless through her church, Rivers of Life Church Ministries in Brandon. She was there distributing food at the same time as the students on Friday.
"My heart was overwhelmed because sometimes we kind of throw our hands up on the youth of today, but these kids just started to take the little extra that they had to bring it out and give to the less fortunate," Harper said.
The other side:
The University of Tampa sent FOX 13 News a statement:
"The University is aware of this student initiative to help feed the homeless and has worked with student organizations with similar missions in the past. The university plans to meet with the students on Tuesday, March 10, to discuss university policies in regard to personal university meal plans and to state health regulations concerning transporting and donating perishable and non-perishable food."
On-campus students are required to have a meal plan. Most cost more than $3,000 per semester.
The Source: Information in this story comes from the University of Tampa, its website and interviews done by FOX 13's Danielle Zulkosky.