2023 A N N UA L R E P O RT
10 Years of Opportunity Grants Influence Generations of Students It is because of alumni and friends like you that the UCM Alumni Foundation celebrated its 10th year of offering Opportunity Grants in 2023. Faculty and staff apply for these grants by outlining how they would implement an innovative idea or technology to enhance the student experience. Over the past decade, generous gifts to the Central Annual Fund have resulted in: • 131 Opportunity Grants awarded to UCM faculty and staff • $374,571 used to implement student-focused initiatives • Priceless experiences beyond what students imagined possible! While some grants have been used for short-term research and projects, others have initiated programs that continue to directly impact the campus community. Here are just a few examples of how faculty and staff ingenuity, coupled with donor generosity, creates opportunity for UCM students.
Full Cupboard Helps Students Reach Their Full Potential Campus Cupboard Lets Mules and Jennies Focus on Their Studies, Not Their Stomachs One of UCM’s first Opportunity Grants in 2013 helped fund a campus food pantry that has since served thousands. With the $5,000 grant, UCM Director of Student Activities Beth Rutt, ’78, ’83, purchased a refrigerator, a chest freezer, shelving and a laptop. In partnership with the Department of Communication Disorders and Social Work and the Department of Nutrition and Kinesiology, Beth established the initial pantry in the lower level of the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, an addition to the Morrow-Garrison complex that opened two years prior. In its first three months, the Campus Cupboard served 257 individuals. Today, the pantry averages more than two times that number each month. According to Feeding America’s 2021 “Map the Meal Gap” study, 11% of the population in Johnson County, Missouri, is food insecure. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as “the lack of access, at times, to enough food for an active, healthy life.” When students face food insecurity, their health and academic performance can suffer. They may have to choose between eating a
Beth Rutt is the “Mother of the Cupboard.” healthy meal and paying for utilities, medicine, rent or other necessities. Of the households in the Harvesters Community Food Network’s 26-county service area, which includes Johnson County, 63% reported coping with food insecurity by buying the cheapest food available, regardless of its nutritional value.* * According to “Food Assistance and Hunger in the Heartland,” a 2021 report published by Harvesters Community Food Network and the University of Missouri’s Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security.
University of Central Missouri Magazine
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