“Every student. Every Bronco. A Full Plate,” is the motto of the campus food pantry, a service located in the Campus School building, Room 103. Any student can access the pantry within open hours found on the food pantry website. With just a scan of their bronco ID card, students are able to shop around.
The campus food pantry assists students with resources from canned goods, to fresh vegetables, hygiene products and more. All these free products and goods have attracted a steady wave of students for the past several years, but recently more students have come to the pantry.
“So right now we’re serving around 5,000 student visits a month,” Emily Hester, the business operations coordinator of the campus food pantry said.. “So that’s approximately 1,000 plus visits a week. And imagining each of those visits is like taking a grocery bag full of food, that’s a lot of food we are going through.”
Skylar Downs (he/him), a food pantry specialist and student employee, attributed the increase of visitors to renewed awareness that the pantry exists. Downs is a senior majoring in psychology and has been working at the panty since 2020. His initial interest to help people drew him to the pantry job.
“I think we’ve been seeing a lot more freshmen and sophomores lately because we’ve been included on the campus tours,” Downs said. “I’ve heard a lot of upper division standing students say ‘Oh! I didn’t even know about this and I’m graduating this semester.’”
The campus food pantry serves 17% of the campus population according to Hester, but that statistic is likely to rise.
“Students are doing projects on the pantry or interviews for their courses and telling their friends,” Hester said. “We were included in some of some professors’ syllabi … So really that word of mouth and referral process across campus I think is what opened up the resource to so many students, which is just a really cool thing to see since we’ve grown so much in this past year.”
With high need comes high demand. The campus food pantry has a network of generous donors, including Albertsons who on Sept. 9 donated $20,000 during the Boise State football game, and continues to support the pantry each semester.
Partnerships with the Idaho Food Bank, Fred Meyer’s, Jacksons, Idaho Botanical Garden’s, a nonprofit called City of Good, parts of student fee allocations and private donors all put food on the shelves for students. The benevolence of the community feeds into the success of the campus food pantry, but there are concerns over the general supply.
“I think what we’re really running into right now is having such high numbers of students visiting, which is like such an awesome thing, but at the same time, puts a lot of attention and a lot of stress on our team,” Hester said.
Callie, a junior studying elementary education usually visits the pantry on Mondays when new shipments come in. She is a regular at the pantry.
“I think if everyone knew about the food pantry, there would need to be more food donated,” Callie said.“It can kinda be contentious in here when it’s super busy, people trying to grab stuff.”
Lucas, a freshman switching over to a major in biology, and Eric,a sophomore in the nursing program both came to the pantry together the day The Arbiter interviewed students during operating hours in the pantry. Both students emphasized the importance of the pantry as a resource and expressed appreciation for it.
Eric was giving Lucas a tour of the pantry as a first-time visitor. Eric stated not many students know about the food pantry.
“I don’t think it’s as widespread as it should be,” Eric said. “I remember there was one time I got somebody to come here, and they started coming once a week too and it actually helped them.”
The campus food pantry participated in the Real College Survey held by the Hope Center. Between 20% and 30% of students experience food insecurity across the nation. Since the pantry only serves 17% of the campus community, Hester hopes to “bridge the gap”.
“We just want to make sure that we’re providing the most accessible space, the safest place, and really just offering what we can to whoever needs it,” Hester said.
