As of Wednesday, April 15, over 1,300 donors have raised nearly $970,000 for the Student Emergency Fund through the Pack Essentials initiative, which will provide students dealing with food, housing and financial insecurity financial aid during the pandemic. These numbers, according to Mike Giancola, Director of Student Ombuds, continue to climb by the minute. 

“We’ve been very fortunate to have such wonderful support from many of our alumni and friends of the university,” Giancola said. “That’s been an incredible source of positive support in what is otherwise a very challenging time.”

Also as of Tuesday, April 14, Giancola said nearly 1,600 students have applied for Student Emergency Fund aid through Pack Essentials, and as of Wednesday, April 15, more than 1,270 students have received that aid. 

“Typically I’m the only one that responds to these calls, but given the increase in requests, we have trained 20 other people, so we have 21 people making calls to try to get back to students in as timely a fashion as we can,” Giancola said. 

To apply for aid through the Student Emergency Fund, students can go to the Pack Essentials website, where there is also a list of resources, including the Feed the Pack Food Pantry which outlines its updated hours and operations here, and a tab specifically for COVID-19 information and updates. 

“There’s a variety of both on-campus and off-campus resources,” Giancola said. “On the coronavirus tab, we have a series of businesses that are offering discounts to students. Maybe for students who need to get home and need a car rental, maybe students who don’t have a place to stay and can get a discount at hotels, those types of things.” 

According to Giancola, grants are currently being prioritized and provided to those with the most immediate needs, which he said are food, housing and the necessary technology for online courses. 

“We’re working to support students that have immediate needs, and we’re defining immediate now as through the end of the semester,” Giancola said. “We’ll continue to look at the needs and available resources and we’ll adjust that as time goes on, but right now we’re looking to help support students through the end of May, and then we’ll continue to evaluate what the ongoing needs are from there.” 

Giancola said the ultimate goal of donors and the university is to create the ability for students to continue to focus on their classes, and to be responsive to students to ensure their needs are met.

“We know this is a very challenging time, and if students are focused on their finances, and worrying about that, then they’re not able to put their energy into the learning and into the classroom,” Giancola said.

Those interested in donating to the fund can go to the NC State homepage, which also contains the updated number of donors and size of the Student Emergency Fund. More information about Pack Essentials and the Student Emergency Fund can be found here.