Pantry to target 'food insecurity'
SLIPPERY ROCK — Recently released data renews the need for a food pantry for Slippery Rock University students.
David Wilmes, associate provost for student success, said food insecurity in college students is a nationwide issue that has garnered much attention over the past two years.
Wilmes said food insecurity is not the same as starving.
“There may be access to food, but is it nutritionally sound food that can give them the energy to get through the day?” he said. “If a person doesn't eat for the whole day because they don't have money to eat, that's food insecurity.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. While hunger refers to the pain caused by not eating, food insecurity is more about lacking money to buy food or not having enough food to eat.
To establish a need at SRU, the university's Student Government Association conducted a survey last year.
The results showed nearly 40 percent of the students had experienced food insecurity, prompting the creation of a food pantry.
“Most of our students don't qualify for the (community) food pantry,” Wilmes said. “If they have student loans, they don't qualify because that counts as income.”
Senior Elizabeth Hernandez, SGA's vice president of academic and student affairs, will manage the pantry.
“The food pantry is completed. It's all organized. There is a sufficient amount of food to sustain the food insecure population on campus,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez and the SGA conducted another survey this year with additional questions to better understand the issue. She said the survey received 798 submissions with 17 percent, or roughly 136 people, saying they would use the pantry.
Hernandez said that the survey further helped the SGA understand students' perceptions. Such understanding helped the governing body guide privacy policy, establish the proper location and develop methods for distributing food.
Pantry volunteers are contractually obligated to confidentiality, protecting students who use the pantry from possible stigma, according to Hernandez.
The pantry is housed in SRU's Robert A. Macoskey Center from noon to 2 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, but the pantry's availability could expand based on the new survey, Hernandez said.
“Through research, students are most likely to use the food pantry at night,” she said. “There are stereotypes around food pantries. Students would feel more comfortable with it being in an area where people can't see them.”
Wilmes said the stereotypes will be hard to fight. He said students have been “bumming” food for decades, so it is widely considered a normalized behavior, but it really means the student is food insecure.
“They're getting by, but are they getting by in a way that's productive?” Wilmes said.
