U of A Campus Pantry ready to start Fall 2023 fresh
The University of Arizona Campus Pantry will be starting the upcoming semester with several events during Fall 2023 Orientation events.
The Campus Pantry works year round to help students, staff and faculty who have difficulty gaining access to foods that fit into the category of “food insecure.”
Food insecurity is when someone has difficulty accessing healthy and sustainable foods. College students face these problems on a large scale.
“I’d say about 92% [of customers at the pantry] are students and then about 8% are a mixture of faculty and staff that make up like our users per week. And part of the reason we do that is because about 36 to 39% of college students on our campus are food insecure,” said Bridgette Riebe, Senior Coordinator of the Basic Needs Center and Services.
People who face food insecurity tend to live in food deserts. A food desert is any area more than a mile away from a grocery store providing fresh produce. Many food deserts have stores that sell canned and processed food but no produce.
The university is considered a food desert because some students struggle to access grocery stores. Many students use public transportation or travel by foot, and with grocery stores well over a mile away, many students go without purchasing fresh produce necessary for healthy meals.
Riebe said students should not be ashamed of food insecurity.
Volunteers and interns at the pantry are current or former university students themselves. Riebe said that the best way to create change and have people gain access to healthy foods is by word of mouth and people traveling in groups with their friends.
“We are very active on our social media, you’ll find on there a lot of free recipes, open hours of frequently asked questions, to kind of like break down what our free items are going to be for the week,” stated Riebe. “The best thing really that gets people in the door is word of mouth.”
Besides working on social media and reaching out to the student community, the interns and volunteers also work diligently to get information out.
Yesenia Torres, a student director at the pantry, and Miguel Meza, an intern at the food pantry, described what they do and the purpose of the campus pantry.
Interns and volunteers work frequently with those who come in and out of the pantry. They describe having to look through food to see when it has gone bad, explaining to people the process of their point system and helping anyone in need.
The pantry has a point system. Every person swipes their CatCard, starting with six points. Each item costs a specific amount based on the type of food. For example, milk and eggs are two points each, but bread is only one point. Typically perishable items are more points than snacks and canned food, those being worth partial points. Some items have recently been marked up to more points due to inflation. Sanitary items do not apply to the point system.
Meza shared a positive experience he had when he explained the workings of the food bank to guests that were confused and overwhelmed and how he values the work he has done.
Meza explains how once you take the time to speak to someone with respect, people tend to leave feeling better and feel appreciated and are more likely to come back.
“And so just understanding that dynamic is really nice, just understand that we’re all part of the community and… [feel] appreciated… That’s something that I really enjoyed,” Meza explained.
The pantry's work brings people together and gives valuable life experiences to current and former students helping out.
As a reader, what can you do to support the pantry?
Riebe said that, currently, the pantry prefers food donations rather than bulk sums of money. Some food that is mass-ordered by pantry employees may be less appealing to college students and young people. However, when individuals donate, a greater variety of food is available, and people with particular preferences or dietary restrictions are given more options. The greater availability of food options also helps to combat food waste.
The pantry works in another vital way to combat food waste.
“The University does composting … we just compost anything that’s going bad,” said Riebe.
Composting helps to eliminate food waste and ensures that even though not all of the produce can be sold before it rots, it goes back into the Earth.
The pantry is also looking for volunteers and interns year-round, and anyone currently attending UArizona can look for opportunities to get involved!
Story Credit: This story was reported, written and produced by the entire 2023 Donald W. Carson Journalism Diversity Workshop cohort.
