Facebook Instagram Twitter Youtube
  • News
    • Campus
    • Local
    • World
  • Arts and Entertainment
    • Performing Arts
    • Visual Arts
    • Music
    • Film
    • Fashion
  • Lifestyle
    • Campus Happenings
    • Community Happenings
    • Food
    • Business
    • Travel
    • Calendar
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Video
    • Globe News
    • What’s Bruin
    • Bruin Lens
    • Film
    • Music
    • Globe Shorts
  • Radio
Search
53.8 F
Salt Lake City
Thursday, September 21, 2023
  • Newsletter Signup
  • Contests
  • About The Globe
    • Staff
    • Jobs
    • Issue PDFs
Facebook Instagram Twitter Youtube
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Privacy Policy
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
The Globe The Globe
The Globe The Globe
  • News
    • Campus
    • Local
    • World
  • Arts and Entertainment
    • Performing Arts
    • Visual Arts
    • Music
    • Film
    • Fashion
  • Lifestyle
    • Campus Happenings
    • Community Happenings
    • Food
    • Business
    • Travel
    • Calendar
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Video
    • Globe News
    • What’s Bruin
    • Bruin Lens
    • Film
    • Music
    • Globe Shorts
  • Radio
Home News Campus Bruin Pantry fights food insecurity on campus
  • News
  • Campus

Bruin Pantry fights food insecurity on campus

By
Megan Neff
-
November 12, 2019
0
Wall of refrigerated goods
The cold-storage area inside the Bruin Campus Cupboard at South City Campus. A survey by the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice indicated that 45 percent of college students experienced food insecurity at some point during their higher education. (Megan Neff)

With Thanksgiving and finals right around the corner, Salt Lake Community College’s Bruin Pantry program can be an aid for those struggling with food insecurity.

Located at the Taylorsville Redwood, South City, Jordan, and West Valley Center campuses, the pantries offer easy access to food support services. But the pantries also experience food shortages, especially during this time of year.

Canned goods inside the Bruin Campus Cupboard
Salt Lake Community College students need a OneCard to access the campus food pantries. (Megan Neff)

AmeriCorps VISTA pantry volunteers Gabriella Battaglia and Michael Braak work full-time to keep SLCC’s pantries open and the shelves full.

“Our frontline staff members are students that are studying or earning a tuition waiver who actually work in the pantries on a regular basis. They’re the ones that staff the front, they do the stocking,” Battaglia says. “We oversee everything, build partnerships, implement new policies and programming, and help support our staff.”

Battaglia says several SLCC student groups and clubs coordinate food donation drives for the pantries around the Thanksgiving holiday.

“Mike and I have been coordinating with all of the different types of groups and working out logistics of the drives to make sure that the food or hygiene items are being transported to the pantries, and making sure when that’s happening that we log those donations and put them away and organize them,” Battaglia says.

To raise awareness for in-demand items, Battaglia asks anyone who wants to organize a drive to contact an AmeriCorps VISTA representative.

“There is a consistent food shortage in Utah,” Battaglia says. “It’s not necessarily that there is not enough food as opposed to it’s not being distributed in equitable ways to the people that need it.”

The Utah Legislature recently released a draft proposal for tax reform that would increase sales tax on groceries. Two-thirds of Utahns oppose this sales tax and can sign a petition to enforce tax relief for low-income families.

The tax increase has the potential to negatively affect local Utah food banks as well as SLCC’s pantries.

A national survey taken in April by the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice shows that 45% of community and university students were food insecure within the 30 days of taking the survey.

“According to survey data, students have recently experienced a time where they weren’t sure where their next meal was going to come from, or they weren’t sure if they were going to have enough to eat,” Battaglia says.

SLCC’s pantries currently need donations of healthy foods, hygiene products, and baby items. Anyone interested in donating or organizing a drive can contact the Bruin Pantry for more information.

  • TAGS
  • AmeriCorps VISTA
  • Bruin Pantry
  • Donations
  • Food Drives
  • food insecurity
  • Gabriella Battaglia
  • Michael Braak
  • Salt Lake Community College
  • student food pantry
Megan Neff

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Knife resting on a kitchen cutting board with avocado, tomatoes, eggs, mushrooms, spring onions, and leaves

How SLCC students can boost their nutrition on a budget

Mavaney Burnham in studio

Globe News – March 16, 2023

Young woman smiling for SLCC Giving Day graphic

Give to students this Thursday for Giving Day

Redwood campus pantry contains dried, canned and refrigerated goods

Redwood Bruin Pantry will expand its operation by moving into a larger space in January

A woman passes a menstrual product to another

SLCC offers free menstrual products. Here’s how students can access them

The Globe
ABOUT US
About The Globe
Staff
Jobs
Issue PDFs
FOLLOW US
Facebook Instagram Twitter Youtube
  • About The Globe
  • Staff
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
© 2023 The Globe