SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Marcy cut the ribbon on Poly Pantry Food Lockers that will let students access food 24/7.
The lockers are part of a SUNY pilot program to address food insecurity on college campuses.
The college also operates a food pantry and recently received an $18,000 grant from the SUNY Transformation Fund to buy food and supplies for the pantry and to pay a part-time pantry coordinator.
“SUNY Poly joins our peers at the SUNY system in our shared commitment to combating food insecurity, as the rising costs of food have led more students to rely on campus pantries,” said Andrea LaGatta, SUNY Poly vice president of institutional advancement in a statement. “Ensuring that our students have access to nutritious food is essential to their academic success and overall well-being.”
National statistics bear out the fact some college students struggle to get enough healthy food to eat. The National Center for Education Statistics reported in 2023 that 23% of undergraduates and 12% of graduate students experience food insecurity based on a survey in March 2020. That’s more than 4 million students.
The center also found that 8% of undergraduates and 5% of graduate students were homeless.
And Temple University’s Hope Center Student Basic Needs Survey released its 2023-2024 report last month. It found that 41% of college students at the 91 institutions who participated in 16 states experience food insecurity. It also found that 48% experience housing insecurity and 14% are homeless.
SUNY schools
The food lockers at SUNY Poly will scan their codes at a centralized kiosk to access food with the lockers set to allow students access for 72 hours. Each lockers costs between $45,000 and $50,000.
The food lockers have also received support locally from Wolfspeed, the Food Bank of Central New York and Aramark.
All 64 schools within the SUNY system ensure that their students have access to a food pantry, on or off campus, or another form of stigma-free food access, according to the SUNY website. And SUNY Chancellor John King Jr. directed all SUNY schools to identify all students likely to be eligible for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP by the fall of last year and to help students apply for benefits.
Mohawk Valley Community College and Herkimer County Community College, who are both part of SUNY, operate food pantries.
Utica University
But Utica University, a private college, also has a food pantry, the Tangerine Grove, with non-perishable food, including both meal ingredients and grab-and-go items; and a refrigerator for fresh and frozen products, dairy products and drinks.
Located in the basement of one of the main academic buildings, the pantry serves students, faculty and staff, aided by two students with federal work study jobs, and student and faculty volunteers. The pantry, which opened n 2020, is open on weekdays for however many hours in the morning and afternoon for which there are volunteers.
Erin Kelly, pantry coordinator and program director for dietetics and nutrition, offered a few facts that hint at the pantry’s popularity:
- In 2024, 140 new clients signed up to use the pantry.
- There were more than 1,200 individual pantry visits during the 2023-2024 school year and this year looks like it will see similar numbers. That’s eight to 10 visits a day.
“I imagine as the cost of food continues to rise,” Kelly said, “we’ll see even more people using the pantry.”
Mohawk Valley Community College
Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) developed an office in 2016 called the College-Community-Connection, or C3, which offers services and resources to help students with non-academic challenges that could affect their education, such as food insecurity, housing, other basic needs, child and elder care, transportation, counseling, legal services, school supplies and health care.
The food pantry is located in the C3 office — open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. — in the Learning Commons in Francis A. Wilcox Hall and offers healthy food, school supplies and hygiene products to students.
The MVCC Foundation 2024 Year-End Summary included some statistics on overall use of the C3 office:
- It was used by 731 students in the fall of 2023 and 802 in the spring of 2024.
- The average student visited the office for services about 10 times in the fall of 2023 and nine in the spring of 2024.
- The pantry gave out more than 36,000 pounds of food during the 2023-2024 academic year.
Herkimer College
The General’s Cupboard at Herkimer College, located in the Classroom Administration Building, offers students food and personal care items during walk-in hours twice a week and by appointment. It also offers special events on SNAP, nutrition and related topics.
On average, between 50 and 100 students use the pantry every month, some of them weekly. The pantry, which opened in 2019, is staffed by a college employee and a work-study student. It relies on donations and grants including from national business and local companies such as Heidelberg Bread, Hannaford and Chobani.
发表回复