As Thanksgiving approaches, it can be a time of uncertainty and worry for students arranging their meal and food options when living on campus. One resource, the Mother Pauline Food Pantry at Saint Mary’s College, assists students in alleviating food insecurity throughout the school year and holiday seasons. This week, the pantry is extending its services to provide students with Thanksgiving food baskets for the break.
Founded in 2018 by the student affairs team and located in the basement of Holy Cross Hall, the pantry is one solution to fulfil the needs of students, allowing them to acquire necessities such as toiletries and food items.
Daisy Loza, assistant director of student involvement, organizes the pantry as a support system for students to use at their convenience. She described the mission of the pantry as creating an environment for students to gather what they need without judgement.
“Our vision is to foster students’ ability to fully thrive in both academic and community life by lifting insecurity to basic necessities, promoting their personal well-being and sense of belonging within the same areas of community,” she said.
The pantry allows students to focus their spending on non-essential items instead.
“If a student is not having to worry about covering these necessities such as food, snacks, period products [and other] items like that, they could use those funds to maybe do something fun with their friends on the weekend. [They can be] putting their money towards something [which] would help them feel a sense of belonging in the community,” Loza said.
Student workers freshman Alayna Robertson and freshman Lilly Richardson have spent the year at the pantry, and were both impressed by its impact on the Saint Mary’s community.
“Our point here is to help you and we’ve built good relationships with some of the customers [who] come in,” Robertson said.
Richardson promoted the casual and friendly nature shared between the student workers and those using the pantry.
“It’s really cool to be able to help people and something that has stuck out to me while working here is that it’s not weird to come in … We’ll be welcoming faces, say hi, ask how their day is going and they can just take whatever they need.”
The student workers also elaborated on the meaning of the pantry and how it serves both them and the students that walk in.
“I think it’s impactful because it’s an opportunity to give back for those of us who are working here, but also it’s impactful [because] when you’re young, when someone invests in you and when someone cares, it means something when someone’s like, ‘Oh, here’s this resource,’ Richardson said.
The pantry will be open on Monday from 3 to 8 p.m., when students can make reservations to stop by and grab what they need through BelleTower, the student resource and event website. Whether students are remaining on campus for the holiday or returning home to their families, students can receive Thanksgiving items from the pantry to support them this week.
“[Students] get to just pick up pretty much as much as they need. We had donors donate a whole bunch of different items, like so much. They are all in the back and it’s like mashed potatoes, vegetables, anything you can think of for Thanksgiving, it’s in there,” Robertson said.
Loza discussed how the government shutdown and holiday seasons increased hardships in obtaining basic items.
“This year, we kind of saw that there might have been a need with the potential cutoff of SNAP benefits and just in general we know that this time of year can be a little bit harder for students and their families. We decided to start asking donations for Thanksgiving items, Thanksgiving sides in particular, so we were asking for things like box starches, mashed potatoes or scalloped potatoes, canned items and things like that to host this drive,” Loza said.
For students who are not able to stop by the pantry during allotted hours or would rather pick up a pre-assembled grocery bag from the Student Package Center, an online order form for items is also available through BelleTower.The order form expands accessibility to the Free Store that is located across the pantry.
Whether to help supply students with food for Thanksgiving or with daily resources, the Mother Pauline Pantry is open to all Saint Mary’s students each Monday and Thursday evening where they can walk in and grab what they need, regardless of socioeconomic background.
“I do want students to know that this is a free resource on campus and the only qualification is that they are a Saint Mary’s student, whether they are a student living on campus, a commuter student or a graduate student,” Loza said.