The U now has a food pantry on campus where students are welcome to discreetly pick up groceries they need.
The pantry is located on the second floor of the Campus Store and is open Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
More than half of U students face food insecurity, according to a survey conducted by the Center of Student Wellness.
The study also said over 100 colleges and universities in the nation now have food pantries.
Kassy Keen, Health Educator for the Center of Student Wellness, said students spend money on many various things and food expenses often take a “backburner.”
“Students have to focus on studies, family, all these things they have to juggle,” Keen said. “Food shouldn’t be one of them.”
Keen said the idea was implemented when the Center for Student Wellness, Women’s Resource Center and the Campus Store came together to discuss the idea, which later included ASUU and the Bennion Center. They benchmarked other pantries, including the one located at Salt Lake Community College, and communicated with other food banks. It took 10 months to get the food pantry officially started.
Donated stocks to the pantry are coming in weekly from the Utah Food Bank.
Keen said she wants students to feel comfortable using the pantry. She said students will leave with a Campus Store bag in order to prevent any embarrassment.
Abby Reyes, a Feed U Intern, said the pantry will do their best not to turn people away.
“We value clients’ privacy and confidentiality,” Reyes said. Although students should bring their UCard, Reyes said the pantry will aid others who come in without one as best as they can.
The U was previously the only public school in Utah that did not have a food pantry.
Reyes said the pantry would also like to see more student volunteers. For the grand opening, Reyes said the Center for Student Wellness made goody bags with recipes in them for students.
Olamide Ayoade-Alabi, a master’s student in economics, said she was originally going to ask her friends to get her groceries for her birthday but doesn’t have to anymore after hearing about the food pantry.
Ayoade-Alabi is a member of the Women of Tomorrow club and said the club had a similar idea to this recently. She’s glad someone is carrying it out.
“There is always a time when you get broke,” Ayoade-Alabi said.
She said although this idea is great, she wonders if the food would be better served elsewhere or if there are other people who may need it more than U students do.
Ruth Arevalo, a senior in health society policy, said trying to “balance out” who needs the resources more is difficult, and that some students needs are greater than others.
Arevalo said her only worry is the food pantry will not be student-run. Arevalo said at SLCC the food pantry is run by students from the College of Social Science who know the student population. She said she hopes the U’s pantry will be run in a similar manner.
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