Studying for finals is difficult and any little distraction can throw you off. Studying is even harder if you have to worry about where your next meal will come from.

This is the grim reality for many University of Georgia students. With ninety-four percent of students receiving financial aid, Let All the Big Dawgs Eat Food Scholarship helps students unlike any other fund.

More than forty-five students get a full one-year meal plan free of charge through the program, which determines recipients via demonstrated need.

Thanks in part to a generous donation by an alum of UGA, the program will be able to help more students in need. Jess Stokely (BA Agriculture ’58) donated $900,000 towards the program, and an additional $1.5 million towards Student Affairs programs within the university.

No stranger to food insecurity, Stokely has sent nutritional relief to more than fifty countries around the world from his church ministry in Pearland, Texas.

“With my background in food management, I feel like I have a God-given mandate to feed all the people I can in my life,” Stokely said. “I received a scholarship when I attended Georgia, and that meant a great deal.”

Stokely’s $2.4 million donation is the largest one-time gift ever made to the university’s Division of Student Affairs.

By: Paul Andresen

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