Each year, Purdue 101 marks the beginning of the Boilermaker journey for thousands of new students. This online orientation program guides students through various university resources and the course planning process before they arrive on campus. However, Purdue 101 does more than prepare students academically — it also helps fight food insecurity. For every incoming student who completed Purdue 101 before June 10, 2024, a $1 donation was made to the ACE Campus Food Pantry. This year’s incoming class broke records by raising an impressive $9,236 for the ACE Campus Food Pantry, which translates to 27,708 meals for Boilermakers in need.
The ACE Campus Food Pantry provides critical support for students, faculty, and staff experiencing food insecurity.
This year’s Purdue 101 contribution was a 7,700-meal increase from 2023, showing the growing impact of this initiative. Since its launch in the summer of 2021, the initiative has helped raise more than $21,000 for ACE, which has helped provide more than 63,700 meals and countless other resources to Boilermakers experiencing food insecurity.
The partnership between Orientation Programs, University Undergraduate Academic Advising, and the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning began as a creative, holistic solution to encourage students to complete their orientation earlier. These three units collaborated to fund the donation jointly, and reached out to the ACE Campus Food Pantry to understand the impacts of what the results could bring.
Maggie Smith, associate director of Orientation Programs, said the idea began to take shape in 2021 when Purdue had a record-breaking first-year class. It was also the second incoming class to conduct Purdue 101 orientation and their course registration process completely online.
“We thought about ways to motivate students to complete Purdue 101 to avoid bottlenecks with advising appointments later in the summer,” Smith says. “The early completion initiative, coupled with our partnership with the ACE Campus Food Pantry, has yielded remarkable results. Students are more motivated to finish Purdue 101 when they know their efforts directly help their peers, making the entire process more meaningful and rewarding.”
Smith credits Heather Servaty-Seib, senior associate vice provost for Teaching and Learning, for suggesting the idea to use the $1 donation to ACE as an incentive.
“From my perspective, we can find even more areas where we can consider using reinforcement rather than negative consequences when we're engaged with college students. Our current cohorts of students are also quite altruistic so a donation can serve as a reinforcement,” Servaty-Seib shares. She also noted, “ACE is very well-established on our campus, but it's not always well known. There can also be a stigma there. Normalizing ACE right from the beginning is a significant plus."
Hailey Kane, the executive student director of the ACE Campus Food Pantry, emphasizes the importance of this kind of visibility. “While we serve over 150 Boilermakers every week, we know there are more people who need to know where we are, who we are and what we do,” she shares. “By partnering with Orientation Programs, we can continue to get our name out there.”
This year’s record-breaking donation highlights the power of collective action and the university’s commitment to supporting the Purdue community. In a time when food insecurity continues to be a challenge, this unique spotlight of the ACE Campus Food Pantry during the orientation experience serves as a reminder that even small actions can have a big impact. As the initiative continues to grow, the Purdue community can look forward to even more meals provided to those in need, ensuring that no Boilermaker goes hungry.
Shree Balasubramaniyan
Communication Assistant for Teaching and Learning, tlcoms@purdue.edu