The Cap Cupboard initially opened Oct. 22, 2018, celebrating its one-year anniversary this past Tuesday.
The Cap Cupboard offers free food items and hygiene products available daily for all students. It’s located in the basement of the Student Union and is open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 4–6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Food items include Chef Boyardee ravioli, Jif peanut butter, frozen pizza, and dozens of other items.
Students can get hygiene products such as deodorant, soap, tampons, and toothpaste.
All of the food items and hygiene products are donated by a range of sources including students, faculty, local churches, and campus organizations.
“A lot of the time, we’ll have faculty members, organization members, and some of Pastor Drew’s congregation that will make pretty large donations,” Kaitlynn Harrell, program organizer and student social work intern, said. “We encourage all students to use the Cap Cupboard if they need to at all.”
Every student has 15 points to use daily. All of the items are categorized by a point system.
For instance, a box of rigatoni and jar of pasta sauce are both two points each.
The 15-point guideline is there to ensure that every student on campus has the chance to get food and other products, but Harrell discussed the possibility of a student needing to take more.
“If a student ever needed to go over 15 points, we would never stop them from taking what they need,” Harrell said.
In the event of that happening, workers at the cupboard would make necessary arrangements.
Photo taken by Robert Cumberlander. 
Photo taken by Robert Cumberlander.
The Cap Cupboard team celebrated its first anniversary by having an open house where students could come in and learn more about what the cupboard is and how it can help them throughout the year.
After one year of operations, the cupboard has had a total of 430 visits.
“For me, I’m just really grateful for the support from Capital and the surrounding community that we’ve been able to do this for a year,” Abbey Rutschilling, program coordinator in the Office of Student and Community Engagement, said.
For students that have any questions, reach out to capcupboard@capital.edu.
