The SVSU campus police has partnered with the Cardinal Food Pantry the past two weeks to help address food scarcity within the campus community.
The “Cans for Cards” Initiative was hosted March 14-25, and allowed students with campus parking tickets to pay eligible fines through donations to the Cardinal Food Pantry, with $15 and $25 citations being considered paid with $5 and $10 equivalent donations, respectively.
Cody Roy, SVSU Parking Services coordinator, commented on the intentions of the program, and how he hoped it would impact police relations.
“We are always looking for ways to reach our fellow Cardinals in positive ways and help each other in any way we can.” Roy said. “Positivity among our Cardinal nest is most beneficial and leads to great partnerships. The other side of this is to open lines of communication for all of us here at SVSU … We want everyone to know they can reach out for assistance at any time and we are always here to help in any way we can.”
This isn’t the SVSU police department’s first time running the Cans for Cards program, and given its impact on the community, they plan to continue and expand on it in the future.
“We launched this program for the first time in November of 2021 and it was a success.” he said. “We feel with more consistent and frequent promotion, this program can really be a much larger benefit to the community and bring awareness to all the good things University Police and the Cardinal Food Pantry do for SVSU.”
Roy went further with this statement, and alluded to the department’s views for future projects.
“We plan to carry out this program once per fall and winter semester as long as it remains beneficial and viable,” Roy said. “We feel it is a great program to help all cardinals in need. We are always looking for new ideas and ways to better serve our community. We feel we are moving in the right direction to make parking more of a positive on campus, leaving folks with a good feel about SVSU and our University Police and Parking Department.”
The Cardinal Food Pantry is located in the Student Life Center, which operates Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. The pantry is open for use by all current SVSU students, and welcomes donations to the food pantry.
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