With food pantries now proposed as a requirement on all state- and city-run campuses, Stony Brook University’s food pantry heads proudly into its fifth year of feeding students struggling to balance the cost of an education and the need to eat.

And it’s students and the community at Stony Brook who make it all happen.

A student volunteer stocks shelves at the Stony Brook University Food Pantry.

Since opening, the pantry has served healthy food to about 4,100 patrons, averaging about 15-20 patrons a week.  Of those, about 75 percent are undergraduate students.

Today many people donate produce or money directly to the pantry, including student groups and campus offices which run food drives for the pantry, such as Students for Humanity and the Faculty Student Association. You can find a list of desired donation items on the pantry’s website

“Our pantry is entirely student-run. Our full community comes together to support it,” said Richard Sigal, co-director of the Stony Brook food pantry. “We really strive to build a relationship with those who visit so that they feel welcome.”

Read more: https://news.stonybrook.edu/university/five-years-on-stony-brooks-food-pantry-nourishes-and-sustains/