College students with tight budgets sometimes have to choose between paying for a meal or paying for other expenses like gas, textbooks or toiletries. Some Elizabethtown College staff and students are actively recognizing food insecurity on campus and addressing it through free resources and education.
Food insecurity “is a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food,” according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Nearly 35% of college students face food insecurity, according to a 2020 survey by The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice.
“It can just be scary,” junior Ariea O’Krepka said. “You don’t know where your next meal is coming from. I feel this because of the situation that my family’s in right now. When you go home and you see the cabinets are bare and there’s nothing in the fridge, and you’re like, oh, that’s probably not ideal.”
O’Krepka began working with the Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE) during her first year of college. She decided to help with the Blue Jay Pantry because of her personal experiences with food insecurity.
“I really understand people who are going through [food insecurity], so I get it and want to help people who are in the same boat,” O’Krepka said.
Now, O’Krepka acts as the primary coordinator for the Pantry. Thanks to monetary and food donations from individual donors, the Pantry offers non-perishable items like canned goods, personal hygiene items like menstrual products and sometimes perishable foods like produce or dairy products.
When a student takes an item, they fill out an anonymous survey to indicate what they took. These surveys provide helpful data to the CCCE, indicating that the Pantry is used up to 200 times per month. In 2022, students used the Pantry over 1,000 times.
Not only is the Pantry completely free to use, but it’s always open, something that CCCE Program Coordinator Leda Werner notes is especially important.
“Even if an area has a food pantry, is it open enough for it to be accessible to people?” Werner said.
Food pantries are often run by volunteers, so hours of operation may be limited and less accessible to adults who work full-time or rely on public transportation. For example, the Community Cupboard food pantry in Elizabethtown is primarily only open Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Students at the College can stop by the Blue Jay Pantry any time, no matter what they need.
“The pantry is always open, and it is open to every single student on this campus,” O’Krepka said. “So even if you need the smallest thing, or you think, oh someone else could use it more, literally just take what you need.”
Because of the abundance of food in cafeterias, food insecurity in students is often overlooked. However, as students start living more independently and opting out of meal plans, some may not be able to afford the groceries, let alone nutritional groceries, that they need.
A residential student may have to choose between buying enough food or putting gas in their car to go to their internship. A commuter may skip buying lunch from the cafeteria between classes because they don’t have extra money.
Werner says not having enough to eat is especially worrisome in a rigorous academic environment.
“Food is one of the most basic things we need to function. College students use their brains a lot when they’re in college, and food is literally the fuel for your brain power. Studies show that if you don’t have enough to eat, it really does impact your ability to focus, your ability to just perform well in classes,” Werner said.
While the Blue Jay Pantry is the most notable food resource for students on campus, both the CCCE and O’Krepka have additional goals to fight food insecurity.
The CCCE plans to host an informational event for students next semester about Pennsylvania’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“We definitely do want to start doing more awareness raising on campus about SNAP benefits because a lot of college students are eligible for them, and they might not think of themselves as being eligible because they’re in college,” Werner said.
In August, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services announced increased eligibility for certain college students to receive SNAP benefits. To help students become more aware of SNAP, the CCCE is currently working with students in Director of Public Health Robert Aronson’s Public Health class to create informational materials for the future event.
As for O’Krepka, she is spearheading an Etown chapter of the Food Recovery Network. The Food Recovery Network is “the largest student-led movement to fight food waste and end hunger in the U.S.,” according to their website.
“The grand scheme of the Food Recovery Network as a whole is to actually do food recovery, which means taking food that might be wasted in the Marketplace, repackaging it and giving it to people who need it. I’m not sure if that will happen while I’m here because I’m a junior and that stuff takes a while, but that would be the end goal maybe in a few years,” O’Krepka said.
Although the Elizabethtown Food Recovery Network is not an official club yet, they have hosted a few small events and are gaining interest from students. On Nov. 11, the chapter will volunteer at the Midwest Food Bank in Middletown.
Students interested in the chapter should follow their Instagram @etownfrn or email okrepkaa@etown.edu for more information.
To learn more about the Blue Jay Pantry and how to support it through donations, visit etown.edu/centers/community-civic/. The Pantry is located at Brossman Commons 251 on campus.
