KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A Western Michigan University fraternity said a lot of college students go hungry during the school year, and they want to help.
The WMU Chapter of Delta Sigma Phi collaborated with nonprofit CALTRAN to launch a fundraising effort to help feed WMU and Kalamazoo College students in need.
President of the fraternity Matt Schuster said the fraternity hopes to raise $1.3 million to purchase an existing or shuttered restaurant, buy a food truck that will operate near campus, and provide operational revenue for the new charity.
They call it Broncos Kitchen.
“This is not something we are doing for Greek life, this is not something we are doing for ourselves, we are doing it for all of Western students and faculty. We want this to be something that benefits the university and the students that go there,” Schuster said.
The kitchen will also sell meals to the general public with proceeds going to their nonprofit student hunger relief project called the Invisible Need food pantry.
“We are not attempting to compete against WMU’s food pantry,” Schuster said. “Our objective is to enhance efforts by Invisible Needs to feed hungry students that live on and off-campus.”
The fundraising project was interrupted after COVID-19 sent students living on campus home, but they are still collecting donations and hope to open in October.
“I want to thank anyone who decides to help us. It really means a lot and it means a lot to future students at Western too,” Schuster said.
