Boise State is making strides to ensure that its students’ basic needs are being taken care of. While the Office of the Dean of Students has worked to create a campus food pantry program over the past few years, their efforts are now being expanded even further.
The newest food pantry location is in a set of blue lockers on the second floor of the library in the College of Innovation and Design. The Boise State food pantry is open to all students, provided they show their student ID.
According to Shannon Anderson, who interns for the assistant dean of students, the program is being very well received.
“We have expanded the campus food pantry program out of the Office of the Dean of Students to another location in the College of Innovation and Design kitchen,” Anderson said.
The idea, according to Anderson, is to make food readily accessible to all Boise State students, and the new location is just another step in the right direction.
Despite posting about it on Twitter, the student body seems somewhat unaware of the pantry’s existence on the second floor of the Albertsons Library.
Cierra Abellera, a senior with a major in psychological science, was studying in the College of Innovation and Design and had no previous knowledge of the food pantry.
“Maybe they should advertise better, but now that I know that it is there, I’ll be able to tell other people about it,” Abellera said. “It’s really cool there is something like that there, I just wish more people knew about it so they could donate.”
Granted, that particular food pantry addition is relatively new, and Abellera said that she was aware of the one in the Office of the Dean of Students. The dean of students wishes to remind Boise State students that anyone is welcome to come to the food bank, but a student ID is necessary.
Lauryl Jensen, an office assistant for the dean of students , said that donations can be brought directly to the Office of the Dean of Students, but donors must make sure that the food is not expired or open.
“Sometimes when students are cleaning out their dorms they find food that they don’t want and donate it to us. We get donations from all over, but we always welcome more,” Jensen said.
In order to donate to the food pantry, students can fill out the donation form that can be found at the link here.
