Friday mornings at 8:30, a group of students from IMPACT, a group that provides volunteer opportunities, meets at the intermural fields on campus to make the trip to the Auburn United Methodist Church to work at the church's food pantry.
The AUMC Food Pantry is the product of two women, Shirley Rose Glisson and Reeder Dulaney.
Fourteen years ago, the duo banded together to start the charity.
"I'm a stay-at-home mom," Dulaney said. "My friend [who lived] across the street had a vision for a food pantry, and we started it 14 years ago. We just started working it during the time our kids were in school."
Now, the Food Pantry is open Friday mornings to give out boxes of food, such as milk, eggs and bread. Volunteers can go Thursdays to help fill boxes.
Glisson stepped down as a leader after the death of her husband and aging mother, according to Dulaney.
Dulaney said the church works hard to make the Food Pantry as welcoming as possible.
"We want people to feel comfortable when they come up here," Dulaney said. "A lot of people are real embarrassed. I've had people walk in and cry, and I don't want that. Everybody has hard times. Everybody goes through something. I'm so glad that our church can help people. We have a very, very generous church."
While the church receives donations from the East Alabama Food Bank, the congregation also donates food and buys from grocery stores.
In the past months, the church had to make extra trips to Kroger, according to Dulaney.
Jason Mohrman, another volunteer who has been helping for the past five weeks, said the community helps tremendously.
"It's a big operation," Mohrman said. "So many people help out. It's a big community effort."
According to Dulaney, the population came from 15 different churches of volunteers last year. However, volunteers do not have to be affiliated with a church to be a part of the pantry.
University students volunteer at the Food Pantry regularly. These students range from IMPACT students to sports teams to individual students who want to help the community.
"When we're short on volunteers, God always provides," Dulaney said. "It's like, 'Oh no! The students are gone! Well, the basketball team's still here and they'll come volunteer.' We really don't know who's going to show up and who's not going to show up, but God just provides everything, and he has from the beginning."
Susan Chesnut, senior in discrete mathematics and computer science, has volunteered at the Food Pantry since last fall. This semester, she comes Friday mornings with IMPACT, where she is a project coordinator.
"I did this project last fall, but I came on Thursdays, which is a little different than Fridays," Chesnut said. "I was more on the back end of packing the boxes and stuff. I enjoyed that because it was going toward someone who really needed it. Just being able to be a part of that was really awesome."
Ellie Inman, junior in supply chain management, also volunteers with IMPACT as a project coordinator. This semester is her first semester volunteering at the Food Pantry.
"It's great making someone's day, giving them food and kind of being a part of that whole process," Inman said.
The volunteers are part of what make the experience so special, according to Inman.
"The volunteers are great," Inman said. "All of the people who volunteer from the church are so sweet and so nice."
It is hard to convince students to come early on a Friday morning, Inman said, but once they come, they tend to return.
The Food Pantry appreciates the students. Dulaney remembers the students who volunteer there consistently.
"I get attached to them," Dulaney said. "I get extremely attached to my students. It's hard. We have some that will volunteer that sophomore year and will stay on. Some will, volunteer but then their schedule messes up, but then they come back."
Dulaney remembered one student who brought her mother to volunteer at the Food Pantry the Friday before her graduation.
"She wanted her mother to volunteer at the Food Pantry and see what she had been doing," Dulaney said. "It was very sweet."
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