Associated Students’ President Aaron Aguilar and his administration are applying for a $25,000 grant to fund the creation of a permanent food pantry on campus.
For the last three years, Associated Students has been discussing creating this pantry. The food pantry is a top priority for Aguilar and his executive team, said Keya Allen, the executive director for Associated Students.
The CSU conducted a study on students’ basic needs in January 2018. The study found that 41.6% of students reported experiencing food insecurity and 10.9% reported experiencing homelessness within the past year.
Reducing food insecurity was one of the main goals Aguilar and Vice President Mansi Kalra ran on during their campaign last semester.
“Hunger and homelessness is an invisible issue on campuses, it’s not something you can see and it flies under the radar. There is not too much funding going towards it. There’s not too much attention given towards it,”Kalra said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2019-2020 budget proposal allocates $15 million as a one-time funding for student’s basic needs for the Cal State System.
“When that’s distributed amongst 23 campuses it really boils down to not much,” Kalra said. “We can talk about academic success all that we want but it really means nothing if we don’t give students the foundation of basic needs to begin with.”
The Campus Care Grant, awarded through the National Association of College Auxiliary Services, is given to fund basic needs programs or services such as a food pantry.
“If we can get the grant then I think the grant will help us to move to the next phase. These students want to get something soon within the time of their administration,” Allen said.
The application for the grant calls for letters from students and administrators in support of the program. Aguilar and Kalra are asking that students send in their letters or testimonies to Associated Students or speak with them about their experiences if they want to.
All members of the Associated Students executive team wrote letters in support of the program, Kalra said.
At last week’s board of directors meeting, Aguilar called on other members of Associated Students to send in letters as well. Kalra said a majority of the board of directors sent in letters.
“It was about one from each college,” Kalra said, or just over half of the board.
Kalra did not say how many students on the ASI Board of Trustees sent in letters or if university administrators did, but she said that close to 15 students at large sent in letters in support of a permanent food pantry.
Associated Students currently has a monthly mobile food pantry that provides students with a free bag of groceries. The next mobile pantry will be held on Sept. 11.
A permanent space would allow students to come in more often to get food, Kalra said.
Aguilar said there is a need for this space.
“When we look at previous efforts that ASI has done in the past like the mobile food pantry,” Aguilar said. “We see the need for those sorts of services. The food runs out like within half an hour.”
Aguilar has visited the food pantries at other CSUs and said having this resource is overdue at Cal State Fullerton.
“We’re 40,000 students, the largest CSU in the entire system and we’re pretty much the only one that doesn’t have a permanent source,” Aguilar said.
CSUF is one of four CSUs that does not have a permanent space where students can come and physically pick up food for free at least once a week.
Allen said that while there are resources like Tuffy’s Basic Needs to help students experiencing food insecurity, a food pantry would be the next step in an effort to alleviate the problem.
“Almost all of our sister campuses have some sort of food program. We’re the only campus that has a fully established basic needs center,” Allen said. “You go into that students’ basic needs center that may not have physical food but you will eat.”
Welcome back students! Tuffy's Basic Needs Center is open and with extended hours now from 8am-5pm Monday through Friday.
Stop by and learn all about what the center has to offer.
Have a great semester Titans!#CSUF #TuffysBasicNeedsCenter #FallSemester pic.twitter.com/z5o0OzZidG— Tuffy's Basic Needs Services (@basicneedsCSUF) August 30, 2019
Aguilar and Kalra said part of the problem with food insecurity is it’s not a visible issue that many students know about.
“People think that food insecurity means you’re just not eating, but if you’re eating ramen all three meals a day you are food insecure,” Kalra said.
Associated Students is working with Second Harvest Food Bank, a nonprofit, so that the pantry holds not just canned goods but also other healthy options for students, Kalra said.
“I think the concept of having a food pantry on campus makes a statement. It says that food insecurity is a real issue. It says we’re addressing it in the open and it really fights the stigma around it,” Kalra said.
Brandon Pho and Jessica Benda contributed to this article.
