The request for an on-campus food pantry has been fulfilled. The Cats’ Cupboard, a new food pantry for the K-State community, opened in late September.
A 2014 survey showed that many students do not have enough money to pay for school and basic necessities like food, as “students’ needs continuously outpaced the resources they had.” After the results of that survey came in, an initiative was created to help alleviate students’ food insecurity.
Another 2015 campus climate survey reported that about one in five K-State students could not afford nutritious food.
Cats’ Cupboard is located in 009 Fairchild Hall and is open from 1 to 5 p.m. every weekday. Any student, regardless of income or living situation, can get food items from the food pantry.
Access to a food pantry not only assists students who live off campus, but it also benefits on-campus residents with a dining plan on Sunday evenings, when none of the dining centers are open.
There are other options for Sunday night meals as well. Many churches in the area, like K-State Wesley, serve free or low-cost dinners. Students can also earn coupons for local restaurants through the Pocket Points app.
Why This Is Important
We live in a society where food porn is everywhere. All over Instagram, we can find our peers sharing pictures of cheese pulls, decadent cupcakes and stacked sandwiches. The reality is, many college students are skipping meals to make ends meet.
The financial struggles that college students face are masked by our social media feeds, where we show the happiest, most ideal parts of our lives.
I think one reason why food porn is such a big deal is that it represents an ideal state of life where a person can afford not just enough food to live, but they can splurge, too.
Having an on-campus food pantry not only helps out students who are food insecure, it points out that college students’ financial struggles are real. They are not something that we should just put a filter over and forget about.