Campus helps Pop-Up Pantry meet students’ food needs 

As food insecurity increases across the country, Carol Petersen is thankful for the support and generosity of the faculty, staff and students at UIC as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches.

Petersen, senior director of the UIC Wellness Center and the UIC Pop-Up Pantry, has seen the number of UIC students visiting the pantry dramatically increase as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or SNAP, have been cut nationally.

“Normally we’re doing about 300 students a week, and then this semester, since these cuts have occurred, we’re seeing an uptick to 400 and a little bit over 400 a week,” Petersen said. “We’re really seeing it affecting our students and affecting their families.”

She said that in addition to the SNAP cuts, students are feeling insecure as they or their family members have lost their jobs, as unemployment numbers continue to rise.

She said the increased need for food has led to the UIC campus stepping up to help by making monetary donations, dropping off food at their door and hosting more than 20 food drives throughout the semester, culminating in time for the holidays.

“Our UIC family has just risen to the occasion in a way I have never seen. It’s record-breaking,” Petersen said.

Open pantry 

On Tuesday, more than 25 volunteers from across the campus will be on hand between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the pantry to receive food donations and help stock the shelves in time for Wednesday, the day before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Normally, the pantry is open on Wednesdays and Thursdays. It’s closed on Thursday this week due to the Thanksgiving holiday (open on Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).

Students are required to register in person at the Wellness Center with their school identification card. The UIC Pop-Up Pantry is located on the second floor of the Student Center East Tower, 750 S. Halsted St.

In addition to current UIC participants, UIC alum and former Major League Baseball All-Star Curtis Granderson continues to support the pantry through the Curtis Granderson Foundation and his food-insecurity initiative, Grand Giving. The annual campaign raises awareness and donations to aid in local hunger relief, with all proceeds benefiting the Greater Chicago Food Depository and the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

Recently, Granderson visited the pantry and helped unload donations he helped organize, stocking the pantry with more than 1,000 bags donated by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois through the Greater Chicago Food Depository. These bags contained granola bars, dried fruit, trail mix and other healthy snacks assembled by volunteers from Blue Cross and Blue Shield to supplement the groceries.

As a former UIC student who lived in a residence hall near the pantry, Granderson said he remembers how students often talked about how they managed their food resources.

“A lot of the students I remember when I was here during that time would talk about their meal plans and how much they had or didn’t have, or trying to stretch out the meal plan,” Granderson said. “At that time, I didn’t realize the challenges that certain students were going through.”

The focus of his foundation, he said, is on education and healthy living, with a particular emphasis on combating food insecurity.

“It’s one thing to say, let’s focus on the classroom, let’s get kids active, let’s get them in baseball and softball, but we also got to feed them as well,” said Granderson, who graduated in 2003.

Meeting the need 

Christina Paredes, program services specialist for the pantry and a part-time UIC student, said the pantry serves to support students’ well-being by providing the food they need to be their best.

“As a student, it’s important to get proper nourishment, it helps your brain function properly, and it just helps you feel good to have the fuel to get through the day,” Paredes said. “It’s important to have a constant resource that’s there for you.”

Jim Conwell, vice president of marketing for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, said that overall, 1 in 5 households in the Chicago area experience food insecurity, and this has been exacerbated by the disruption of SNAP benefits. While the benefits have resumed, many people, including students, are still catching up, he said.

“Student hunger and student food insecurity is an underreported issue and that’s why we are proud to partner with the UIC food pantry,” Conwell said. “We don’t want hunger to come between any student and their future.”