Day of Giving 2025 Helps Pack Essentials Expand Student Support

NC State’s 2025 Day of Giving was once again an emphatic statement of community support for the Pack Essentials program. 

The day raised $136,181 from 444 donors for the Pack Essentials Fund, with two vital programs under the unit’s umbrella, the Feed the Pack Food Pantry ($48,884 from 351 donors) and Student Emergency Fund ($17,646 from 117 donors) also seeing a huge influx of support. 

These contributions from the Wolfpack community are crucial to Pack Essentials’ ability to fulfill its mission of combatting basic needs insecurity on campus. 

“To know that NC State’s Day of Giving can provide that level of financial assistance to our program, we absolutely depend on it,” said Stevie Kimmet, Pack Essentials’ program director. 

This year’s funds will allow Pack Essentials to make a seismic change in its ability to support students facing financial crises: raising the cap on Student Emergency Fund grants from $500 to $750 per student. 

Kimmet explained that students who apply for the emergency fund grants use them for a variety of critical needs, including rent, groceries and medical expenses. 

“I can’t overstate how much impact this will have,” Kimmet said. “It’s the first time we’ve made this type of increase to our Student Emergency Fund grants. We don’t want students to rely on us only to experience a crisis and not get the support they need. This is something that we consider to be a change in perpetuity, and it will have important implications for our program’s resources, but certainly also a big change for the impact that we’re able to have on students’ experiences at NC State.” 

Pack Essentials’ Day of Giving support was once again buoyed by a generous challenge gift featuring NC State alumni wishing to give back. 

When the Pack Essentials Fund reached 350 total gifts, Brad Remmey, ‘94 and Ginny Remmey donated $50,000 to the fund, and Steve Deaton, ‘79 and Gladys Deaton donated $25,000. This was the largest challenge gift in the Pack Essentials program history.

Kimmet called the ability to raise the cap on Student Emergency Fund grants “a $75,000 decision.”

“Those types of gifts are game-changing for us,” Kimmet said. “We raised a little bit over $610,000 this entire fiscal year. When you think about $75,000 of that $610,000, that’s a significant amount of money coming into our program. I think it also speaks to the incredible support from people who want to give back. Steve Deaton was a Pack Leader on Day of Giving. The Deatons give very generously to Pack Essentials, but they’re also leveraging their network and passion for the work that we do to make sure that other people who want to get connected to Pack Essentials and want to support NC State know about us. That’s invaluable.” 

Fundraising events such as Day of Giving and the annual Pantry Bowl, and continued community support remain crucial to Pack Essentials’ mission of combating basic needs insecurity. 

Kimmet said that the pantry saw a 41% increase in patron usage this year, and spent approximately $108,000 so far on food, with much of that spending going towards the purchase of fresh, healthy food. Having the level of donor support the program has enjoyed has allowed Feed the Pack to tailor its food orders to what its patrons need and ensure patrons receive the same amount of food no matter what day and time they visit the pantry. 

That community support was on full display in North Hall’s Pack Essentials Hub on Day of Giving, with donors, students, volunteers and community partners coming together for an in-person event to celebrate the program’s mission. 

“Just to see our community represented in real life at that event, coming together to talk about why they’re passionate about Pack Essentials and how their support makes our program thrive, it was a treat to be there,” Kimmet said. “I cried, because I was just so touched by the spirit of generosity that was in that room and present with all of our partners, and all of the people who step up and really got involved. We could not exist without all of our amazing partners.”