LSU Libraries is allowing students to use canned goods and other non-perishable food items to pay off their library fines up to $20 from Nov. 4-25. Each item is worth $1 off any fines accrued during November.
All donations will go to the LSU Food Pantry, said Head of Access Services Kelly Blessinger. Students should bring the donations to the Middleton Library circulation desk.
“The Food Pantry is relatively new, so we definitely want to support that,” Blessinger said. “That’s directly benefitting LSU students.”
The Food Pantry operates through the Office of the Dean of Students and has been used more than 300 times and affected more than 500 community members since Aug. 22, 2014, according to the LSU Student Advocacy and Accountability website.
Any student, full-time or part-time, enrolled in the regular semester can use the pantry. To use the pantry during the summer or winter, a student must be registered for the next regular semester, said Assistant Dean of Students Jennie Stewart. There is no limit to how often a student can access the pantry.
“We’re grateful to have any campus or external partners do food drives because our food pantry relies solely on donations,” Stewart said. “Any fund raising or food-raising is so vital to us being able to provide food to hungry or food-insecure students.”
The program is an interdepartmental effort within the library system, Blessinger said. A staff member from the budgetary side of LSU Libraries developed the idea while participating in LSU’s LEAD. … Emerge leadership development program.
Blessinger said donations got off to a slow start, but she thinks it will pick up after overdue notices are sent out. The overdue notices will remind students of the food donation alternative.
She also said donations cannot be used for any fines accrued outside of November, as they were sent to the Office of Bursar Operations.
“It’s out of our hands,” Blessinger said. “They handle it from there. We can’t get into their system to edit any fines.”
Blessinger said the feedback from students is primarily positive. After the main LSU Twitter account tweeted information about the program, she said several students replied that it was a good idea.
If the program is successful, Blessinger said the library system may look into doing similar events in the future.
“We’ll have to see how well this one goes,” Blessinger said. “Then we can think about other relationships we could have, perhaps with the [Greater] Baton Rouge Food Bank.”

Gallery • 4 Photos

Zoe Geauthreaux

A canned-foods donation box is set up on Monday, Nov. 9, 2015, in the lobby of Middleton Library.