Two Greater Washington Virginia Tech alumni have donated $1.5 million to launch an online food bank service for students who experience food insecurity, the university said Wednesday.

Mehul Sanghani, CEO and founder of Octo Consulting Group, and his wife Hema, a manager at CGI Federal, made the donation after approaching the university with the idea in the fall of 2019.

The couple, who met as undergraduates at Tech and graduated in the late ’90s, were looking for philanthropic opportunities in the area of hunger and food insecurity. The two made a visit, in summer 2019, to The Store, a free grocery in Nashville, Tennessee, which partners with Belmont University.

While both grew up with parents who had emigrated from India with nothing but the “clothes on their backs,” Mehul Sanghani said in an interview, both also said they were fortunate to have never known life without a hot meal.

“A student should not have to worry about where they will get their next meal from while pursuing…