'Most students need just a little help': MSUB opens emergency food pantry - Billings Gazette

'Most students need just a little help': MSUB opens emergency food pantry - Billings Gazette

A year ago, Montana State University Billings staffer Shayla Fox was hearing more and more from students about food insecurity.

A student would mention missing a meal, or someone would talk about another person who went hungry from time to time.

"We just increasingly saw a need from our students," said Fox, who is MSUB's volunteer engagement coordinator.

The question was then about the actual prevalence of the problem. Last month, MSUB opened its Yellowjacket Emergency Pantry to serve those students, and they've been using it.

It's a room on the second floor of the Student Union Building on campus. There are shelves of soup, pasta and tuna. The pantry also has toiletry items — lotion, shampoo and toothpaste.

Students can stop by and take what they need now and again to get by. Fox said that many of them just need to bridge a short gap between resources.

"Most students need just a little help," she said.

The pantry is run by the university office for community involvement, which handles volunteer activity, fundraisers and other events through MSUB. It's open only to students, and the shelves are filled by donations.

To get the ball rolling on the project, Fox assembled a committee and distributed a survey in February to gauge interest. Of the 367 students, faculty and staff who responded, more than a third said there were times when they didn't have enough food.

Nearly half knew of someone who didn't have enough food. And so the emergency pantry project moved forward.

Jeff Rosenberry, associate dean of students, housing and residential life, said that the food pantry is an attempt to address one result of a larger issue.

"What we're trying to do is recognize that financial insecurity is the number one problem facing students," he said.

Though MSUB is known for having a large percentage of nontraditional students, Rosenberry said that many of the younger students who live on campus have also stopped in to use the pantry.

Fox said when the pantry opened, she put the word out to the campus community. It took off from there. Student groups and academic departments collected and brought food donations to fill the shelves. The pantry has seen use since.

The university will continue its own food drives, like the annual Halloween trick-or-treat event. This year, however, half of the proceeds will stock its own food pantry. The rest will go to Family Service Inc.

Fox said that in the future she would like to see more educational programs around the pantry. Classes for budgeting and cooking for cheap are in the works.

Rosenberry said that while the pantry is always open for donations, it also needs volunteers to keep the program going. He said hunger shouldn't be a problem for students seeking higher education.

"And now we're serving students, and that's the part that feels good," he said.