Amy's Kitchen is donating 1,200 cans of soup to SOU's student pantry, serving food insecure students. The company which specializes in prepared vegetarian and vegan foods has been preparing many of its products in White City since 2006.

A major employer in Southern Oregon is donating more than 1,000 cans of soup to Southern Oregon University students in need.

Amy’s Kitchen will donate a combined 100 cases of its organic Alphabet Soup and Indian Golden Lentil soup varieties to the SOU Student Food Pantry throughout the coming academic year, according to a release from the university.

At 12 cans per case, the donation adds up to 1,200 cans.

SOU’s pantry has been operating for more than a decade, according to an email from SOU spokesman Joe Mosley. 

Students are eligible to take as many as 10 nonperishable food items per week, occasional perishable food items and unlimited hygiene products as long as they are enrolled at the university. 

The pantry is typically stocked by individual donations, with the bulk of its food and monetary donations coming from the university’s February Food Drive — an offshoot of the Governor’s Public Employees Food Drive — according to Mosley.

The food drive typically brings in close to 2,000 pounds of food donations, according to Mosley. He described the Amy’s donation as “one of the largest-ever individual donations to the food pantry — and it’s greatly appreciated.”

The Amy’s Kitchen donation expands that number by more than a third. Based on 600 cans of Alphabet Soup each containing 400 grams and 600 cans of Indian Golden Lentil Soup each containing 408 grams, the donation amounts to 1,068 pounds of food.

Amy’s Kitchen is based in Petaluma, California, but has operated a manufacturing plant in White City since 2006. According to an email from an Amy’s Kitchen spokesperson, this year to date the company has “proudly contributed more than 6,500 meals to our donation partners across Oregon.”

The company donates its Gluten-Free Rice Mac & Cheese to the Oregon Food Bank; it donated its Organic Light in Sodium Split Pea Soup for the Southern Oregon Polar Plunge benefiting Special Olympics Oregon; and it has regularly donated to Jackson County’s community action agency ACCESS.

“These donation efforts are part of our ongoing commitment to support local communities where we operate through nourishing, organic food,” the email states.

SOU’s pantry is open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at Room 312 of the Stevenson Union. Student clients utilizing the pantry for the first time must fill out an intake form providing their student ID number. For more information, email foodpantry@sou.edu or see studentlife.sou.edu/food-pantry.