{"id":6767,"date":"2025-02-18T09:48:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T14:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/?p=6767"},"modified":"2025-02-18T09:48:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T14:48:53","slug":"paying-for-the-pantry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/2025\/paying-for-the-pantry\/","title":{"rendered":"Paying for the Pantry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

Ranbir Singh \u201992 ms, \u201997 phd didn\u2019t have a lot of extra money, but he found ways so he didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCooking together, eating together, there was a level of building community and friendship to that,\u201d Singh says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ranbir
Ranbir Singh \u201992 MS, \u201997 PHD. Photograph by Marc Hall \u201920 MA, NC State.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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. \u201cI am thankful for all that I experienced at NC State,\u201d he says, and the food pantry \u201ctouched me as an appropriate place to give.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnybody can come,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s important.\u201d That same spirit is present at the Feed the Pack pantry, now in an expanded location in North Hall. During the 2023\u2009\u2013\u200924 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n

Ranbir Singh \u201992 ms, \u201997 phd didn\u2019t have a lot of extra money, but he found ways so he didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCooking together, eating together, there was a level of building community and friendship to that,\u201d Singh says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ranbir
Ranbir Singh \u201992 MS, \u201997 PHD. Photograph by Marc Hall \u201920 MA, NC State.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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. \u201cI am thankful for all that I experienced at NC State,\u201d he says, and the food pantry \u201ctouched me as an appropriate place to give.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnybody can come,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s important.\u201d That same spirit is present at the Feed the Pack pantry, now in an expanded location in North Hall. During the 2023\u2009\u2013\u200924 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alumnus bolsters Feed the Pack with first endowment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":6768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"views\/single-immersive.blade.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-immersive-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"backgroundColor\":\"red_400\",\"caption\":\"Photograph by Marc Hall \u201920 MA, NC State.\",\"displayCategoryID\":9,\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"Alumnus bolsters Feed the Pack with first endowment.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[1759,1768,1769,1774,1775,1758,1779],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-6767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newswire","category-stories","tag-feed-the-pack","tag-food-pantry","tag-food-scarcity","tag-genesic-semiconductor-inc","tag-north-hall","tag-ranbir-singh","tag-ranbir-singh-feed-the-pack-endowment"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":9,"name":"Stories","slug":"stories","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":260,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6767"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6892,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6767\/revisions\/6892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6767"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=6767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}