Paying for the Pantry
Alumnus bolsters Feed the Pack with first endowment.
Ranbir Singh ’92 ms, ’97 phd didn’t have a lot of extra money, but he found ways so he didn’t go hungry when he was an international student at NC State. Singh remembers opening up a can of tomatoes to whip up a makeshift curry that he would share with roommates and friends.
“Cooking together, eating together, there was a level of building community and friendship to that,” Singh says.
Singh, of Sunny Isles Beach, Fla., wants to make sure other students are able to afford the food they need and experience that same joy in breaking bread with others. He has established the first endowment for the Feed the Pack food pantry, which offers free food and toiletries to the NC State community.
Singh, who is the founder and president of GeneSiC Semiconductor Inc., says he was looking for ways to give back to his alma mater when he learned about how the pantry was trying to address food insecurity. “I am thankful for all that I experienced at NC State,” he says, and the food pantry “touched me as an appropriate place to give.”
And it falls in line with his faith. Singh was raised in the Sikh tradition, in which sharing food is considered an important way to promote equality. In fact, Sikh houses of worship all over the world operate free food kitchens. The Golden Temple in India, the most prominent Sikh holy site, operates one of the largest free food kitchens in the world, serving nearly 50,000 meals a day.
“Anybody can come,” he says. “That’s important.” That same spirit is present at the Feed the Pack pantry, now in an expanded location in North Hall. During the 2023 – 24 academic year, about 218,000 pounds of food were distributed. The pantry is staffed by volunteers and funded entirely by donations. As fundraising efforts continue, the Ranbir Singh Feed the Pack Endowment will help provide a reliable stream of income.
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