In the United States, the National School Lunch Program serves as a safeguard for the nutritional needs of primary and secondary students.¹  And yet few such safeguards exist for college students, despite increasing cultural emphasis on higher education as the key to social mobility.²  For college students from low-income backgrounds and those who as a result of recent economic downturn find themselves low-income, it can be difficult to obtain adequate nutrition.

For this reason, we worked with a local nonprofit to open an emergency food pantry on our campus at Oregon State University.  People who come to our campus pantry share some things in common.  Many, for example, are university students from single-person households.  All are having difficulty achieving adequate nutrition and bear the emotional and social burden of this fact.  This is why the pantry on our campus is set up in a shopping style to resemble a grocery store environment.  By allowing those who visit the pantry to select items for themselves, we offer them an experience closer to that of those who have sufficient financial resources to meet their nutritional needs independently.

Beyond the need to obtain adequate nutrition in ways that are socially acceptable, the needs of visitors to our pantry are diverse.  Depending on the availability of such items through our regional food bank and direct donation, we stock items to meet these needs.  Some visitors to the pantry have food allergies to dairy, nuts or wheat; some practice vegetarianism or veganism.  People of many nationalities visit our campus food pantry, each with their own culinary traditions.  Many have concerns regarding how their food is produced, often preferring organic and local foods.  Some have limited kitchen equipment and find it difficult to store or prepare certain items, while others have limited food preparation skills and prefer convenient packaged foods.  Still others prefer to make meals from scratch in order to avoid preservatives, excess sodium and fat.  Low-income persons visiting the pantry also often have difficulty acquiring personal care and hygiene items, which cannot be purchased with food stamps, and so the pantry stocks these items as well.   

Feedback from those who utilize our campus food pantry has been overwhelmingly positive.  This is partly because the pantry represents a resource for people whose nutritional needs were not otherwise being met.  But visiting the pantry is also a positive experience because of the choice in pantry offerings and the attention to diverse needs and preferences.  It is this, above all, that allows us to meet pantry visitors' nutritional needs with cultural sensitivity.  It is this dignity in service that encourages them to come back so long as they have need.

For more information about the Oregon State University pantry, please visit http://asosu.oregonstate.edu/osuefp.