Alumni Continue to Support Lunch in a Crunch on Blue Ridge Campus

Alumni Gary Masters ’79 and Mike Masters, ’83 are continuing to support the Lunch in a Crunch closet on the Blue Ridge Campus that they helped establish.

Gary, Mike and their spouses, along with Mike Higley, ‘80 and his wife Robin, were key in founding this free program on the Blue Ridge Campus. Since 2021, Lunch in a Crunch has provided free grab and go breakfast and lunch items to over 200 students each semester.

Sandy Ott, Executive Director of the Blue Ridge campus, explained that a third of the students on the Blue Ridge campus are dual-enrollment, and would qualify for free breakfast and lunch at their public high school. She said the staff at Blue Ridge, along with the Masters and Higleys, founded Lunch in a Crunch to help satisfy the need for free breakfast and lunches to students in need on campus.

“Anytime the closet gets low on food, all I have to do is reach out to the Masters’ and they show up with a car full of items for our students,” said Ott. “I truly cannot thank them enough for their continued support of this program!”

Ott said that with only two days into this fall semester, nine students have already taken advantage of the Lunch in a Crunch closet.