Food pantry offerings and awareness at a southeastern public university

Abstract

Objective

This study documents campus awareness of an on-campus food pantry and the value of its nutritional offerings in order to provide tailored recommendations for improving this particular emergency resource for food insecure students.

Participants

This study surveyed 253 students, and 185 faculty and staff at the Southeastern Flagship Institution.

Methods

This mixed methods study combined a quantitative survey administered to 438 participants with an in-depth nutritional analysis of the food pantry’s offerings.

Results

Results showed low levels of awareness by faculty and staff and limited offerings of fresh fruits and vegetables, dark leafy greens, and whole grains in the on-campus food pantry.

Conclusions

This research helps to fill critical gaps regarding faculty and staff awareness of on-campus food pantries. Importantly, this article provides recommendations for campus food pantries to improve their campus awareness and nutritional offerings through engaging University stakeholders with long-term appointments and increasing donor education.

Keywords:

• Campus food pantry
• food insecurity
• food pantry
• nutrition
• student hunger

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of United States of America and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of University of Mississippi.

Funding

The authors received no funding for this study.