The Groveland Food Pantry (pictured above) is located at the Central Presbyterian church on Center Street. Geneseo has prioritized improvements of the pantry after Governor Cuomo announced his five-step plan to mitigate food insecurity (Catherine White/editor-in-chief).
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a five-step plan on Aug. 29 to mitigate hunger for students in grade school through college. Part of this plan mandates that every SUNY campus add a food pantry, which Geneseo already has, but they plan to make it more well-known and accessible to students.
“New York is proud to be the first state in the nation to require every public campus to have a food pantry, ensuring that our students have all they need on the path to success,” Cuomo said in a press release.
The Groveland Food Pantry is located at the Central Presbyterian church on Center Street.
The food pantry operates relatively simply, according to Dean of Students and Director of the Center for Community Leonard Sancilio.
“If a student finds they’re in need, they can just go to the food pantry,” Sancilio said. “I think for the first time that someone would go, the food pantry would really just provide them with food for a day or two … if they want to continue to utilize the services, they would need to get to the financial aid office and then the financial aid office would generate a letter that the student could give to the food pantry and then they could access the food pantry.”
When it comes to how many students actually need and utilize this service, it’s unknown for Geneseo specifically, but as many as 15 percent of NY students suffer from food insecurity, according to the governor’s press release.
Geneseo administration has prioritized food security and is looking into several ways to not only improve the food pantry, but come up with other ways to solve this problem.
“If you’re concerned about where your next meal is coming from, you’re not concentrating on your studies and if you’re hungry, you’re clearly not concentrated on your studies either,” Sancilio said.
In pursuit of greater food security, the college is also attempting to find ways to safely save food from dining halls instead of immediately composting it, Sancilio said.
Students have expressed little awareness of the food pantry plan.
When asked about the food pantry, biology and business administration double major junior Ryan Dwyer was unaware of it and believed that awareness for it should be raised.
Coordinator of Student Leadership, Volunteerism and Service Office Garth Freeman emphasized the college’s plans to highlight the food pantry and other opportunities to prevent food insecurity.
“We have a student-run group called Food Security Advocates that’s run through my office in the Center for Community,” Freeman said. “[We] see that as a way to bridge that gap and at least have students at the table when we’re working out those details of how that gets communicated to the campus.”
Freeman also wants students to be involved through volunteering at the pantry. The Betsy Matthews Internship is centered around the food pantry and it’s a paid position to incentivize students to get involved.
An issue Dwyer raised was that high dining hall prices may exacerbate food insecurity.
“The amount they budget you [for meal plan] compared to the amount they charge you per day is kind of absurd,” Dwyer said. “Even with affordable options like all-you-can-eat brunches and dinners, you still have to be really aware of it.”
Campus Auxiliary Services is interested in doing whatever they can to help the food pantry initiative, according to Executive Administrative Assitant to the Executive Director Joann Augusto. They already work with Food Inc. which supports food pantries and donates to the community, Augosto said.
News editor Zainab Tahir contributed reporting to this article.