White House Highlights University of Arkansas' Full Circle Food Pantry as Champion of Change

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From left, Sylvia Tran, Julia Lyon, Angela Oxford, Rachael Pellegrino and Mirelle Pierini will represent the Full Circle Campus Food Pantry at the White House.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Student volunteers of the University of Arkansas’ Full Circle Campus Food Pantry are being recognized at the White House this week as one of five winners in the White House Campus Champions of Change Challenge.

“Young people have always been at the forefront of movements of change. I am so proud of these students and their campuses for their innovative work to improve communities all across America,” said President Barack Obama. “I hope their brilliant example will inspire Americans of all ages to come together to support an America that’s built to last.”

Four students and one staff member from the university are traveling to Washington, D.C., to be honored for their work. They will be given a tour of the White House and visit with Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor before taking part in a public ceremony and panel discussion on Thursday, March 15. The ceremony and panel will be streamed live online and can be seen live on the White House website at www.whitehouse.gov/live at 1:50 p.m. CDT on March 15.

The students making the trip are: Julia Lyon, from Morrilton, a student volunteer and chair of the Full Circle Campus Food Pantry; Sylvia Tran, from Fort Smith, an intern with the Volunteer Action Center; Full Circle volunteers Mirelle Pierini of Maumelle; and Rachel Pellegrino of Hot Springs. Angela Oxford, director for the center for community engagement, will accompany the students.

The group will be sharing their experiences on Twitter and can be followed at @UAVAC.

They will also be blogging and posting information and photos at http://wordpress.uark.edu/vacint/

“What an incredible opportunity to present the Full Circle program to universities and colleges across the nation. I hope that other campuses will be able to take our program and adapt it to their own campuses,” said Lyon.  

The pantry was opened in February 2011 by students involved with the university’s Volunteer Action Center with the goal of providing a dignified and discreet way for any member of the University of Arkansas community who needed food to get it. In the first year of operation the pantry has served more than 2,500 people.

Last fall, the White House announced the launch of the Campus Champions of Change Challenge. After reviewing a record number of entries, 15 finalists were announced in late February, and the public chose the top five projects through online voting.

Supporters of the student volunteers who staff the Full Circle Campus Food Pantry cast 57,142 online votes for the food pantry over the course of eight days, finishing a close second to a program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, which received 59,852 votes, according to the website. Service programs at Grinnell College, UCLA and the University of Chicago were the other three finalists

“Thanks to everyone who has supported the Full Circle Campus Food Pantry. We never dreamed we would be invited to the White House as a result of this program,” said Lyon. “We certainly could not have achieved this without everyone voting as they did.”

The students are very excited about making this trip and being recognized nationally for their hard work.

“This is certainly one of the most exciting and memorable trips I will ever take,” said Sylvia Tran, who led the social media campaign to get votes for the pantry. “It also brings much joy to my family, who are Vietnam War refugees. They only hoped to provide a better education and more opportunities by coming to America, not an opportunity to be recognized at the White House!”

The Champions of Change program was created as a part of President Obama’s Winning the Future initiative. Each week, a different sector is highlighted and groups of Champions, ranging from educators to entrepreneurs to community leaders, are recognized for the work they are doing to serve and strengthen their communities.

In addition to being invited to the White House, these Campus Champions of Change will have the opportunity to work with mtvU and MTV Act to create short features about their projects that will air on mtvU and be featured on MTV.com. 

To watch the White House event live, go to www.whitehouse.gov/live at 1:50 p.m. CDT on March 15.