Luke Whitehouse
@Lwhitheouse12
The Pride Pantry is a perfect representation of Springfield College embracing its humanics philosophy. The Pantry serves a resource for students to have access to necessities without worrying about cost.
Hunger on college campuses has become a nationwide problem, and schools are taking the right steps to combat it.
According to Stateline, “The number of food pantries on U.S. college campuses has ballooned from 80 to around 800 the past decade.”
Charlene Elvers, the Director of the Center for Service and Leadership was a key contributor in the Pride Pantry’s inception.
“About six years ago, graduate students came and met with me and said that they were hungry and didn’t have enough money to go month-to-month with their food budget, and a lot of their peers couldn’t either,” Elvers said. “So I had a student-staff member that did a whole research project on campus to find out if there was enough need.”
After the culmination of the project, it was in fact clear that there was a need with both undergraduate and graduate students.
“Springfield College was kind of following the same trend that many schools had been going toward,” Elvers said.
The “Pride Pantry” opened up in September of 2018 after a food drive, assisted by campus resident assistants and President Mary-Beth Cooper. The pantry was located in a small closet area just on the edge of campus.
After a few moves, the Pantry found its current home – inside the campus Union, a central location that allows students to access it easily.
“Moving to this space has given us a lot of opportunity,” Elvers said. “I feel like with us being in the Union, we have taken away that stigma of needing a visit to a food pantry. Food is incredibly expensive and I hope students know that this is a judgment free zone. We just want students who need to use it to use it and make it as welcoming as possible.”
It’s also evolved with the type of items that are offered.
“It’s not just food now,” Graduate associate Emily Fluet said. “We have books, kitchen supplies, clothing and other supplies students might need.”
Elvers added that other programs have been incorporated to help grow the pantry.
“We have also added a swipe out hunger program,” she said. “Students who have meal plans can donate unused meal swipes and we can distribute those to people who need meals. We also have a food recovery network, where we go to the dining hall once a week and recover food that otherwise would be thrown away.’
The Pride Pantry has relied on students, staff and alumni to help fill it, but recently, after partnering with the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, the Pantry can begin to grow and become truly sustainable.
“What it allows us to do is access the food in their food bank,” Flute said. “We can place orders for food from them that we may need more of or that we never get. We also get to use some of their resources – we’ll be having one of their representatives come to assist students with SNAP benefits (food stamps) a couple times a semester.”
Since 2018, the Pride Pantry has been a resource that students can use and its only the beginning.
It is open Tuesday 11-2, Wednesday 1-4 and Friday 11-3. Students can also place orders online through PrideNet.
“I just hope it’s helped with the notion that it is ok to come in here and get what you need,” Elvers said.