Corky’s Cupboard will be accepting donations of “gently used” cookware from April 3 to April 21. This donation drive is focused specifically on items such as kitchen utensils which might otherwise be thrown away during spring cleaning as the academic year comes to an end.

“If they come across stuff that they’re like, ‘Why do I have this? Do I actually need this?  Rather than just tossing it out, kind of providing a way that those utensils can be reused or repurposed for students who need it,” said basic needs coordinator Cale Bolen. 

This year is Bolen’s first time helping with the donation drive since accepting his position at ESU.

“I’m excited to just see what we’re able to pull together as a community,” Bolen said. “I was shocked with ‘Can the Bods’ so I’m sure this drive will also have just as much support.”

Corky’s Cupboard will be working together with the wellness center to promote the event. Anju Takahashi, senior health and human performance major and Chloe Holms, Junior Health and Human performance major are taking on the donation drive as a project for their practicum.

Together they have made flyers, asked each department for permission to place donation boxes around campus and tabled in the Memorial Union to spread awareness about their project. Takahashi, an international student from Japan, uses the pantry once a week.

“Even working and having enough money, sometimes I need eggs because they are getting expensive,” Takahashi said.

Takahashi also said students are most in need of hygiene products such as toilet paper. However, the donations are not only limited to hygiene items. Employees at the cupboard such as Nadia Valdez, freshman biology major, encourages others to continue to donate food items as well. 

“Sometimes you need to choose between your studies or to eat,” Valdez said. ”So sometimes it’s a hard decision. It’s important for people to make donations to Corky’s Cupboard so that way we can help students to have a good quality of life.”

Valdez and her coworkers are currently preparing for the busy days that follow donation drives, which include organizing each of the donations into their designated categories and stocking the items onto the correct shelves.

“It’s for the students, so it’s always nice to work even if it means you have to work hard,” Valdez said.

Anyone in the community can drop off their donations in the designated cardboard boxes which will be labeled with “spring cleaning” posters located in various locations around campus.