Pantry student employee Kellie Finley-Call (STH’25) stocks shelves at the Food at BU Food Pantry, located in the Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. Students can place an order online and pick up items—including canned vegetables and fruit, cereal, and peanut butter—there three business days later.

Campus Life

BU Launches New Initiative Aimed at Fighting Student Hunger

Program run by Student Wellbeing offers a food pantry, provides education, and promotes campus and local resources

Hunger was a major issue facing many Americans even before the pandemic, but soaring inflation and housing costs are forcing even more people to ration food or forego meals entirely in order to meet their expenses. Add to this the fact that many pandemic emergency programs are winding down, and it makes for an extremely volatile situation.

Young people are especially vulnerable. A 2020 study by Temple University found that nearly 29 percent of students at 4-year universities had experienced food insecurity—defined by the US Department of Agriculture as a lack of consistent access to enough food to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle. The problem strikes college students of all ages, from undergraduates to PhD candidates, at both public and private universities. Boston University students are not immune. 

In an effort to address the issue, the University has launched a centralized approach to food insecurity, which encompasses a food pantry as well as education and information about resources aimed at fighting food insecurity on and off campus. The new initiative, overseen by Student Wellbeing launched this semester and was made possible thanks to a $75,000 grant from the Massachusetts Hunger-Free Campus Initiative, which aims to reduce hunger on college campuses. 

“I think what stood out is our educational approach to food insecurity,” says the grant’s co-applicant Carrie Landa, executive director of BU Student Wellbeing. “We want to be able to teach students about how they can access food resources, both at BU and in the greater Boston community.”

Co-applicant Ellen Faszewski, associate dean for student affairs at Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, says she and Landa were thrilled when they learned BU had been selected. “We put a lot of time into writing the application, and I’m happy we helped Student Wellbeing receive more financial support and credibility,” she says. “I’m very excited for the students and the community to have access to these funds and we can scale up our efforts.”

Before this initiative launched, many BU departments were already working to address hunger on campus. There were food pantries at Wheelock and on the Medical Campus, as well as smaller one-off pantries launched by individual departments and offices. During the spring 2022 semester, Innovate@BU held a BU Hub cocurricular course and a month-long Campus Hunger Challenge, which promised $10,000 to the students or alums who could dream up ways to help people access food. 

Meanwhile, discussions were happening among BU administrators about how best to centralize food distribution efforts across the University. 

With an uncertain economy and a higher number of Pell Grant students coming to BU, students have more financial need than previous generations, Landa says. “Nationally, certain communities and public institutions might see higher rates [of need than BU], but the demographic of the University is changing,” she says. What’s more, since international students aren’t eligible for financial aid, “in some ways it’s unclear what exactly the food insecurity rates look like at BU, but we do know that they exist,” she says.

Student Wellbeing’s initiative is designed to be a “systematic approach” to help students, secure food and resources, no matter what school or college they are in, Landa says.

Landa acknowledges that for some students, there may be a stigma around asking for food assistance, and says the new initiative is sensitive to that. Students are asked for their names and BU ID number, but all orders are kept strictly confidential.

Using this order form, student “shoppers” can choose canned items like vegetables and beans, fruit, soup, tuna, pasta, rice, cereal, and peanut butter. The request is filled by student workers and is then ready for pick up three business days later on either the MED or Charles River campuses, depending on which location the student requested.

Beyond Food Pantries

Landa and Faszewski echo experts who say that food pantries are not a permanent solution to food insecurity. The new strategy features a robust website, which has the BU Food Pantry order form, a detailed history of food efforts on campus, and a list of campus and community food resources for students who are experiencing food insecurity. 

There are links to information about free community dinners held at Marsh Chapel and the Allston Brighton Food Pantry, other local food pantries, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the City of Boston’s Farmers Market Coupon Program, as well as food education programs, including Sargent College’s Sargent Choice Nutrition Center, which runs workshops on budgeting and how to create inexpensive, healthy, and filling meals. 

One resource promoted on the website is Terrier Meal Share, a program that allows students to donate their extra guest dining hall meals to students in need, with Auxiliary Services matching donations. (BU Today previously reported that the demand for Terrier Meal Share significantly increased during the pandemic.) The process is completely confidential. 

Faszewski is encouraged by the progress thus far, and dreams of how it can continue growing, perhaps with pop-up food pantries and by offering perishable items such as fresh meat and vegetables. “For now, we want to keep increasing access and our outreach, and try to reduce the stigma around food insecurity,” she says.

Interested in getting involved to support food needs on campus? Email BUfood@bu.edu or sign up to be a volunteer. BU community members are also encouraged to host a food drive in their dorm, club, or office to donate to the BU Food Pantry, or send in a donation.

Learn more about all the campus-wide and local resources to support food needs.