Every Tuesday at the at 2:45PM in the EMU Amphitheater students are able to bring a bag and pick up any produce that they may need at no cost. (Alyssa Garcia/Emerald)
On Feb. 8 and Feb. 14., the Associated Students of the University of Oregon spoke with Oregon legislators to advocate for the Student Emergency Needs Package, HB 4162. On Feb 14., ASUO was joined by the Oregon Student Association and OSPIRG Students.
The Student Emergency Needs Package is a bipartisan $6 million emergency fund for public colleges and universities across the state. The package sets aside $5 million that colleges and universities can customize to improve student basic needs programs and infrastructure.
“[ASUO] wanted to advocate for the emergency relief package because there is such high food insecurity in general, resource insecurity with the high cost of attendance, and there’s so many things that students are lacking in their wraparound support,” ASUO’s Secretary of Campus Health and Safety Madison Studer said.
Additionally, according to ASUO it was crucial for them to advocate for the emergency package since obtaining further sources of funding outside of ASUO funds will increase the food insecurity services on campus.
“It’s super important for [ASUO] to obtain funding for students because at the moment, a lot of the basic needs subsidies and all that stuff is funded through ASUO,” Studer said. “It is super important to provide for students that are hungry and with a high cost of attendance, it’s getting to a place where we need to be asking for outside sources of funding other than student dollars being circulated around students.”
ASUO initiative to increase the number of accessible basic needs services on campus, including the establishment of an on-campus food pantry will be possible through the aid of the Student Emergency Needs Package.
ASUO has been in the works of establishing an on-campus food pantry, after Studer noticed the lack of service compared to Portland State University and Oregon State University.
“I would say that my passion really sparked for making this on-campus food pantry happened when I started talking to my colleagues from other universities … and understanding we were the only one out of the three big colleges of Portland State [University] [and] Oregon State University, the three big universities in Oregon to not have them [on-campus food pantry],” Studer said.
UO is currently the only university in the Big Ten Conference without an on-campus food pantry.
Currently, the Student Food Pantry provided by the Basic Needs Program, Episcopal Campus Ministries and FOOD for Lane County is located off campus at 710 E. 17th Ave., furthering the desire to establish an on-campus pantry, according to Studer.
Both Dean of Students Marcus Langford and Associate Dean of Students Jimmy Howard highlighted how the Student Food Pantry has been successfully serving the UO community since 2011.
In the winter of 2023, the Basic Needs Program sent out a survey to UO students to gather data on the rates of food insecurity, housing insecurity and homelessness among students.
The survey concluded, for instance, that 3% of the 2,781 UO students who responded to the survey reported they didn’t have money to eat for at least 3 days, according to Howard. Three percent is lower than the average number of other Oregon colleges that participated in the survey, which was about 7%.
According to Howard, the Student Food Pantry has served at least 907 UO students in the current 2023-2024 academic year, which roughly matches the number of students who said they were food insecure in the survey. Therefore, “we’re actually meeting the number of folks who said they needed additional support for food in our pantry efforts,” Howard said.
Howard believes that a benefit to an on-campus food pantry would be the accessibility to basic needs.
“I would say one of the ways that will serve students is that it would be probably closer,” Howard said. “It’s probably something that they [students] could manage to get to while they’re either going to class or leaving class.”
Similarly, UO student Hana Mazur believes an on-campus food pantry will be “more of a dependable source.”
Apart from providing students with more accessible food services, ASUO’s intention with the on-campus food pantry is to assist students with their mental health and with achieving their academic goals.
“[By] bringing additional food resources, ASUO is interested in helping students with their mental health, achieving their academic goals and providing basic needs,” Studer said. “When you are food insecure, those things are in jeopardy.”
The initiative to establish an on-campus food pantry started in the 2024 winter term. As a fairly new project, Studer has been speaking with multiple stakeholders, including the Basic Needs Program, UO administration and other universities to gain a grasp on the logistics of the pantry.
“ASUO looks forward to collaborating with President [John Karl] Scholz and the university administration to ensure all University of Oregon students have access to the essential resources they need,” Studer said.
ASUO hopes the university will recognize the issue of food insecurity among students, and then establish an on-campus food pantry consisting of a sustainable assortment of foods.
Similarly, Howard hopes there will be a continuation of providing healthy and nutritious foods, including fresh produce and culturally specific options to students. Apart from food resources, Howards also hopes the pantry provides the basic kitchen utilities like pots and pans.
The university provides an array of basic needs services to students, including the Ducks Feeding Ducks program, the Leftover Textover program and SNAP Benefits.
Both Langford and Howard believe that while the university is providing a significant number of basic needs resources, there is still room for improvement.
“I think while there is always room for [the] kind of growth and improvement that’s with anything that we do, from my perspective, the institution, I would say is making, what I would call ‘more than a good faith effort’ to do what we can to support students in need,” Langford said.
Langford also said that students may not be aware of “some of the really, really, good existing resources and kind of opportunities that are available for them.”
Studer acknowledges the efforts taken by the university to provide students with necessities and hopes to continue the efforts by providing an on-campus food pantry.
One existing on-campus program is the Trillium Produce Plus Produce Drops, a service provided by the Student Sustainability Center in partnership with FOOD for Lane County, about which volunteer Violet Wade said the university is doing a “good job” at providing resources to individuals.
Additionally, Trillium Produce Plus Produce Drops volunteer Emma Sheldon said “ the produce drop does a relatively good job of trying to spread awareness about food insecurity, because I feel like a lot of students are food insecure without even really realizing it.”
However, UO student and University Dining worker Melia Miller said that the university is doing a “terrible” job at providing the necessities to students, and “the amount of waste that [dining halls] produce is honestly very sad and instead of giving the food to fellow students or people who need, we throw it away.”
Miller also said that having an on-campus food pantry will hopefully “help change things a little bit.”
Studer hopes to institute the on-campus food pantry by the end of the academic year.
