The A-State Food Pantry has started several new initiatives offering assistance to students, faculty and staff without income requirements.  

Ten years after the creation of the A-State Food pantry was approved through a Student Government Association resolution, the pantry recently made room for a thrift store and began a food recovery program with plans to expand efforts to make the pantry more accessible. 

Located at 2907 E. Johnson Ave., the food pantry is run by students and is open Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Anyone with an A-State ID number can receive supplies.  

“We’re basically in charge of providing food products, hygiene products and food recovery,” Elizabeth England, food pantry operations director, said. “It basically serves as a food supplement source, so if they are in need of soup or critical supplies for cooking. We hope to provide that to them for free.” 

Those interested in getting food from the pantry can receive one protein, vegetable, fruit, grain, personal hygiene product and miscellaneous snack every week. They can also get two items per week from the thrift store. 

“There’s right under 100 food pantries in all of Northeast Arkansas, most of them are monthly and a couple of them are bi weekly. So being able to come every week to a food pantry in this area is kind of rare. So it’s really good that we do have that for A-State people,” Mary-Keaton Render, director of the food pantry communications, said. 

England, a senior political science major from Piedmont, Missouri, said the food pantry recently updated their infrastructure and installed PantrySoft, a software they received from grants to keep track of inventory and allow online orders.

Render said the pantry is working on a delivery system for PantrySoft orders for students who live on or close to campus.  

“A big population of our people that come to the food pantry are international students and most of them don’t have a car, so most of them walk at least a mile, sometimes a mile and a half, to come to the food pantry,” Render said. “We really, really want to be able to serve those students in a way where they don’t have to do that.”

Online orders can be placed by accessing the link in the food pantries Instagram bio (@redwolfpantry), emailing Foodpantry@astate.edu or using the QR code scanner at the pantry.

Render, a senior social work major from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, said some donations of canned food comes from the sorority Lambda Chi’s ‘Cream of the crop’, a Greek life canned food drive competition that occurs every year to help fight hunger in the area.  

“The past two years, we’ve actually collabed with them and they’ve let us take like 9000 pounds of food. So we’ve been super stocked on corn and green beans,” Render said.

Food recovery

Allison Webber, a sophomore nursing major from Highland, Arkansas, is the director of food recovery for the pantry. She said the food they recover for the pantry is from the Acansa Dining Hall. 

“It’s untouched and we will pack it up into storage bins, take it to the food pantry, and they can come and pick up however much they want,” Webber said. “So it’s basically like a fresh meal for them compared to a can of food, which is just as good, but we try to offer a variety.”

England said this a great resource that also reduces waste, because the food would be thrown out by the dining hall if it was not recovered. 

Webber said she is trying to get in contact with other parts of A-State’s dining system, like Chick-fil-A, Starbucks and Einstein Bros. Bagels to be able to recover food from those places as well, but has not heard back yet. 

She said this is the pantry’s second year doing food recovery and it is still a work in progress that she’d like to see grow. 

“I’m only going to be in it for another semester, but whoever takes over for me next semester, I hope to communicate with constantly and get it to grow even more, because I don’t want it to just stay stagnant,” Webber said.

Thrift store

Over Christmas break the pantry has transitioned the coat closet of the pantry into the A-State Thrift Store, arranging it like a boutique with clothing racks.

“It’s more appealing to look through and you feel like, ‘Oh, I’m like really thrifting something’ instead of ‘okay, these are the coats we have in your size,’” Render said. 

Render said there is a laundry basket in the pantry for clothing donations and they have plans to put donation spots in dorm halls. 

Volunteers

Render said there are 100 to 150 people who volunteer each week on a set schedule. The ways the pantry could still use help is through outreach and getting the word out about the services they offer. 

Jenna Brown, a junior pre professional biology major from Des Arc, Arkansas, has been a volunteer at the food pantry since last Fall. She said she volunteered in high school and knew she wanted to continue in college

“It’s really made me think about others, because I feel like some people come to college and it’s a very personal experience,” Brown said. “Even though I’m not from here, it’s still easy to find ways to give back to your local community,” 

England said being a volunteer instilled a passion in her for connecting with others and learning about their backgrounds. 

England said the pantry takes volunteers every semester, so students wanting to get involved can apply at the start of every semester to volunteer for one hour per week or they can collaborate with Render to set up ways for organizations to bring in more donations from within the Jonesboro community. . 

Render said there are 100 to 150 people who volunteer each week on a set schedule. The ways the pantry could still use help is through outreach and getting the word out about the services they offer. 

Students, faculty and staff can also donate any non-perishable food items that have not been opened, hygiene items and clothing items. 

“I think the biggest thing is that we’re still growing so much. We have so much room to grow, we have so much flexibility in what we could establish,” Webber said. We have such an awesome community here of people that want to help others and are not too afraid to come up and take what they need.”

Categories: Life