Campus food pantry helps students in need

Students make selections from the food pantry.

Photo credit: Michaela Gibbs

By Michaela Gibbs

The Help Your Shelf food pantry at the Wellness Center in Jesse Hall served at least 60 Concordia students so far this fall.

The pantry, under new coordinator Kathy L’Heureux, is free, confidential and open to any student who finds themselves in need. It is open every Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., offering items ranging from personal hygiene products, dry goods, fresh fruit and protein snacks to meal mixes, nonperishables, microwaveable meals and cleaning supplies. Once a month, the pantry also provides food vouchers to the local grocery store Pac’n’Save.

“Help Your Shelf is a tangible way that we can live out our calling by making sure that every student feels supported, valued and cared for,” L’Heureux said. “This is a great free resource for our students on and off campus.”

One student who uses the pantry said it provides nutritious food at no cost to the students.

“I think that this is a great resource for students because one of the really difficult things, especially if you’re on a lower meal plan, is having access to nutritious food, because food costs money and money is hard to come by sometimes,” the student said. 

L’Heureux has implemented a new tracking system to help show what items students are using and how frequently. To help with this, five students from the Luke Scholars program volunteer on Fridays to stock the shelves, greet students and answer any questions that students might have. 

Junior Richard Peperkorn said he can help get students what they need.

“Because we are there volunteering, students can ask us for specific products and we can then talk to Kathy about it, which allows for the pantry to be stocked with things that students actually need,” Peperkorn said.

The Concordia and Seward communities can get involved as Help Your Shelf accepts monetary donations, gift card donations to grocery stores and physical donations of most needed items. These include canned goods, dry goods, granola bars, microwaveable meals, personal hygiene items, feminine hygiene products, toilet paper and laundry soap.

There also will be a Fall Food Challenge from Oct. 12 through Nov. 12. If the student body collects 500 individual containers of nonperishable foods or essential items, Concordia will receive $500 from Thrivent for the Help Your Shelf pantry. 

As she continues to work on this program, L’Heureux hopes to have Help Your Shelf certified through the Lincoln Food Bank.  She also wants to purchase a refrigeratoand freezer to offer more dairy and produce items so that students do not feel required to eat only processed foods. She also wants to increase donations and funding for the pantry. 

L’Heureux said that the food pantry is a way to show Concordia students that the community cares for them.

“There’s going to be challenges in life whether it is financial or spiritual,” she said. “Providing this resource is another way of showing them [the students] that we can care for and love them in a tangible way.”