1. Serving Students Facing Food Insecurity
Nakiel Coleman, Dr. Kim Buch
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Introduction
Results
Niner Student Food Pantry
Moving Forward
Mission: The Niner Student Pantry exists to ensure food security, human dignity and well-being on campus by providing in need UNC Charlotte students with healthy, culturally appropriate emergency food.
Goal 1: Serving students’ food insecurity needs.
Goal 2: Raising awareness and educating the campus and community about food insecurity.
Goal3: Providing an on- campus site for service learning.
Data revealed that more clients used the pantry on Thursdays (M=18.5) than on Mondays (M=10.4) but little difference in Pantry usage was observed on university holidays (M=12.2) when compared with regular hours of operation during the academic school year (M=14.4). The percentage of clients who utilized the pantry more than once was 38.9%, while 20% utilized the Pantry between 3 and 5 times.
According to the USDA, food insecurity can be defined as a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food. Food insecurity has become more relevant among the college student population due to factors such as yearly rising tuition and lack of financial assistance. It is estimated that 29% of students on American college campuses face some sort of food insecurity. A fairly new solution to this issue is college campus food pantries. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte opened Niner Student Pantry in the fall of 2014, and has since distributed approximately 10,000 food items to over 800 student clients. Who are the students being served by Niner Student Pantry? What is the pattern of use among these students?
New home of the Niner Student Pantry
-More space to better accomplish our mission and goals
-Expanding our offering of more nutritious food
- Greater visibility and access
The current study provided vital information about the first year of the Niner Student Pantry’s operation. We now have a better understanding of who we are serving and our client’s pattern of Pantry use. This information will guide Pantry leaders as they develop processes to better serve existing clients, while reaching out to unserved students who are struggling with food insecurity. Because we have served under 2% of the total UNC Charlotte population, there is a considerable gap between students served and the estimated 29% who may be struggling with food insecurity. Future research will identify ways that might help to close this gap.
Data revealed that the Niner Student Pantry has served a total of 825 clients since opening on September 29, Of those clients reporting their student status, 49.8% were graduate students. 48.9% indicated they experienced food insecurity “occasionally” while 16.8% experienced it “frequently.” Clients reported living in households comprised of between 1 and 8 adults, with 45.5% living alone and 12.1% living with just one other adult. Pantry records indicated that the largest number of students served was on opening day, and the average number served from October through June was 14.1 clients.
Conclusions
Methods
We analyzed preliminary data which was obtained during the food pantry’s first year of operation. Upon arrival at the food pantry, student clients were asked to fill out an intake form which asked questions on their demographics as well as their need for assistance. They were then asked to sign a pledge on the form which confirmed their honest need for the assistance before proceeding to gather the items of their choice. Clients were allowed to return to the pantry once a week during operation hours on Mondays and Thursdays between 3pm- 6pm.
Results continued