The College Student Pantry, a food pantry run by and for students, reopened for the fall semester Sept. 1 with healthy food selections for all college and graduate students in New York City. 

The College Student Pantry is a student-led food pantry program accessible to anyone with a current student ID in New York. It runs every first and third Monday and Wednesday of the month out of an East Village nonprofit center from 4 to 7 p.m., separate from the daily pantry that is open Monday through Friday. 

Student organizers partner with Trinity’s Services and Food for the Homeless (SAFH) and PRISM Progessive Student Ministry, a progressive LGBTQIA+ Christian community group, to run the pantry. The pantry is located at Trinity’s SAFH at 602 E. 9th St., near Avenue B. 

The pantry was started by New School and New York University students who saw a need for food assistance among their classmates in September 2020.  

“The idea for the pantry arose out of a recognition among students at NYU and the New School that student food insecurity is a significant and growing problem in New York,” the organization’s website states.

Many New School students have turned to the pantry for assistance and have found more than just their next meal.

Valentina Graziosi, a second-year Journalism + Design and Culture and Media student at Lang, first visited the pantry’s welcome event on Sept. 1. 

“I walked in and there was this information table and it had cute merch, like pronoun badges, free succulents, and badges regarding what the pantry was and they also had little stickers,” she said. 

Graziosi described her excitement upon seeing a variety of free hygienic products on a table at the pantry. 

“It was this huge table, it had hygienic products, free pads and tampons. Then it had protection, like condoms and lube,” she said. “It was a frickin’ lifesaver!” 

At a cooking station in the front of the pantry, a chef gave a 5 to 10-minute stir-fry demonstration using a variety of vegetables. 

“This person was teaching a bunch of other students how to make easy meals that weren’t going to break the bank,”  Graziosi said. 

In the back, where the food pantry is located, volunteers handed out laminated yellow cards titled “3 Day Pantry Shopping List” with designated points for food categories. Vegetables and fruits are five points, proteins are four points, grains are two points and so on. 

“Whatever you grabbed calculated the points like a little bingo sheet,” Graziosi said. “I basically got a week’s worth of groceries. I was able to get ground beef, which was amazing because it’s usually very expensive. I got mac and cheese. I got some garlic, lemons, and sweet potatoes. I was able to get a good amount of cereal and yogurt too.” 

Student volunteers help make sure the College Pantry runs smoothly for new and returning students. 

Eliana Shoffner, a third-year self-design liberal arts major at Lang, applied to be a volunteer for the program this semester. She found out about the pantry through Instagram. 

“Someone had reposted a flyer of the pantry, it said ‘free groceries this Wednesday for college students,’ and I was like, wow, that’s so cool,” Shoffner said. “Then I saw that they were accepting volunteers as it’s entirely run by student volunteers.”

Shoffner is a volunteer as well as a campus ambassador for the program. She felt the pantry was the perfect opportunity to help address an issue she first learned about during orientation her freshman year. 

“We talked about food insecurity among college students, and how there weren’t really any specific initiatives to tackle that [during orientation],” Shoffner said. “So I really thought that doing the Campus Ambassador position and kind of advocating for The New School — spreading this resource around our school, in particular, would be really helpful to a lot of people.” 

Volunteers work in person at the pantry every time there is an event and make sure all the groceries are laid out and organized. They also promote the pantry through social media with flyers on how to get involved and resources on food security. 

“There is also an outreach aspect,” Shoffner said. “I share the most recent posts on Instagram with every New School-based account and explain how useful the resource can be.” 

Shoffner is planning to do a pop-up information stand at the University Center to make more students aware of the resources at the pantry.

The plan is awaiting approval from The New School administration due to COVID-19 restrictions. 

Gigi Schweitzer, a second-year visual studies and Journalism + Design student at Lang, visited the pantry for the first time on Sept. 1 as well. 

“It was a really lovely layout,” she said. “You could do grocery shopping and go through their little pantry situation that had staple items like grains and rice and canned things. There was fresh produce like meats and dairies and whatnot.”

Schweitzer was content with what the pantry had to offer and the resources made available to her. It’s her first time being on the New York City campus, and the pantry was a great way to welcome her to the community with open arms and guide her along the way, she said. 

“It was nice to find areas of support with so many resources. There were upperclassmen volunteering and helping guide you along the way. I hope to go to it again and volunteer in the future. If you’re closer to it, it’s an awesome resource and they are happy to help students out, which is the best part,” Schweitzer said. 

The pantry creates a friendly environment for college students to socialize with students from different schools and diverse backgrounds. It’s a safe space for students to build a community and support each other amidst a pandemic, students said.

“It’s very tight-knit and friendly,” Shoffner said. “It’s just a bunch of college students. You can connect with students from NYU, Hunter College, FIT — from freshman to graduate students.” 

This year’s college student pantry is open throughout the fall semester. There are appointments available for students with dietary restrictions on the pantry website, however, walk-ins are also acceptable. The College Student Pantry is also seeking student volunteers.
The pantry accepts food and hygienic products donation drop-offs Monday through Friday from 7:30-2:30 p.m. The pantry’s monthly newsletter and pamphlets can be found at @collegestudentpantry on Instagram.