Step into the Seattle Central College Food Pantry, if you are a student in need

With the start of the new school year, the Seattle Central College Food and Resource Pantry is ready to better serve our community. Students interested in accessing supplementary food resources or school supplies can still visit the office at BE 3215, open Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and Fridays from 9:00 a.m to 11:30 p.m..

Vlad, a new student at Seattle Central, visits the college Food and Resource Pantry for the first time and speaks to The Seattle Collegian. “I find this really helpful because the college cares about every type of student.” He expresses how the pantry becomes a huge support for college students as food insecurity interferes with their education, “There is nothing you have to worry about if you are seeking an education. This college can provide you with everything, like food. So, this food pantry is just a very good thing.”

As an illustration, in a Fall 2022 survey on student basic needs, security found that 50.1% of students at 39 colleges and universities across Washington State experience food and/or housing insecurity. The survey was administered by Western Washington University in partnership with the Washington Student Achievement Council. Thus, there is no wonder that food insecurity is a big challenge for many college students.

Zachary Hunter, Food and Resource Pantry manager at Seattle Central noted that with the end of explanations of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits after the Covid era, more students seek the support of the college pantry. “From my own perspective, when those benefits ended, I saw more students at our food pantry,” Hunter says, “I know that those cuts impacted our community because I saw the students who started seeing us more, who were telling me anecdotes.”

According to Hunter, during the Spring quarter this year, students have visited the College Food Pantry on 322 occasions. Usually, the pantry serves 300 to 450 a quarter and about 35 students a week. Even though students are able to visit the pantry once a week and there are limits to food quantity, he says, “Everything is also available on a case-by-case basis if the students are able to ask and explain. We are in the practice of trying to make sure that students have their needs met. We are not trying to make it difficult for students to access food.” 

“When I first started at Central, the Food Pantry was a big help,” says Sophia Bruscato, an international student of Central College who wasn’t able to work outside of campus, recalling her past experiences. While making money just to pay her rent, Bruscato heard about the pantry. “I felt a little relieved to know there were resources like this available. The process was easy and direct, and I’d get a bag of shelf-stable groceries once a week. I still feel much gratitude towards it.”

Students can find dry goods, groceries, snacks, some toiletries, and even school supplies in the pantry. Nevertheless, it should not be the only place where students are accessing food. “The value of this food pantry is that we’re meeting students where they’re at, and we’re helping them with some really consistent pantry staples that they can come to rely on,” says Hunter. “We really try to ensure students know that this food pantry is really meant to be supplemental.”

Meanwhile, the Food Pantry is in a transition phase as it prepares to move into a bigger space in the former Veterans Lounge (BE3210C) at the end of this Fall quarter. The hope is to get a much bigger traffic of students and maximize the service as well. According to Ysrael Adam-Walker, Veteran Support Specialist, “The food pantry is moving back to where it was started for the first time.” Adam-Walker recalls how the first Food Pantry was started by the Students Veteran Union in 2016. “Those days, there were a huge number of students in the college, including veterans. We all, as students, started the first food pantry here to serve the college community.”

In brief, the College Food and Resource Pantry is a great resource for Central students to fulfill their needs. Many hands are together behind it, including donors, faculty, and students that are hoping to see our community succeed. “I believe that our food pantry has the capacity to grow, and it has the capacity to be a bigger program with the right institutional support,” says Hunter.