A little competition in the Public Relations Student Society of America at LSU led to a partnership with The Cajun Spoon and a large donation to the LSU Food Pantry this past December.
Jennie Stewart, a former Student Advocacy and Accountability faculty member, created the Pantry in 2013. The Pantry, which is open to all students facing food insecurity, was housed in the dean of students’ office until summer 2016 when Campus Life took control of the Pantry and moved it to the fourth floor of the Student Union.
“[Stewart] created [the Pantry] out of a need that she was seeing with students who were experiencing food insecurity,” said Josh Dean, assistant director of Campus Life’s Service Programs. “[Campus Life has] a student organization called Kitchens on the Geaux that does food rescue and programs a couple of times a year that focus on food insecurity and food distribution … so we transitioned the Food Pantry to Campus Life and Kitchens on the Geaux.” 
For the past few years, PRSSA has aimed to work with local businesses and professionals for mutual benefit and to help organization members gain experience and networking, Hailey Johnson, vice president of PRSSA at LSU, said, The focus on experience ultimately led to a meeting between officers of PRSSA and The Cajun Spoon’s CEO Ryan Grizzaffi.
The Cajun Spoon is “an authentic Cajun dry mix company” that originated in Baton Rouge, according to the company’s website. 
This blossoming partnership led to the creation of a PRSSA-wide competition in which members had to create a real event plan to help spread news of The Cajun Spoon’s rebranding, Johnson said. While Grizzaffi has picked a winning plan, no news has been released on the status of its execution. 
After the competition ended, Grizzaffi approached PRSSA about continuing their partnership by giving back to the community, Johnson said.
“We were all super excited about being able to help our community at LSU,” Johnson said. “I had no idea how much food he was bringing … it was 5,000 meals to the Food Pantry.” 
PRSSA then contacted the Pantry late last semester with news that it had a donation from The Cajun Spoon, Dean said.
“Probably the most popular item that we see in the Food Pantry is rice,” Dean said. “I think because it goes across culture, so no matter where you’re from, rice is a staple in your diet. We’re always on a shortage of rice, but The Cajun Spoon donation had some … rice-based dishes. That was a huge support, especially as we wound down the semester and needed to stock the shelves again for the spring semester.”
All students need to use the Pantry is their Tiger Card and an “intake form,” so the Pantry can understand the student’s needs, Dean said. Students are given a reusable bag to fill twice a week during visits to the Pantry. 
When the Pantry extended help to faculty and staff affected by the flood in the fall 2016 semester, the Pantry saw more than 400 people use the Pantry around 1,600 times, which was an increase from the fall 2015 semester when the Pantry was only used 150 times, Dean said.
“You want everyone to know about it,” Dean said, “but you don’t want to stigmatize them to use it.”