Temple’s going to open a food pantry for university students
They will be able to receive food free of charge
Temple's food pantry is expected to open on Feb. 19th at the second floor of the Howard Gittis Student Center. Here, students will be able to visit the pantry and select items free of charge.
A recent survey showed that nearly 35 percent of all Temple's undergraduate students face "low" or "very low" food security. This caused President Richard M. Englert and Provost JoAnne A. Epps to join in a task force which led to the food pantry idea.
Students stated that they experience food security challenges because of their prior commitments to other responsibilities such as textbooks, rent, etc.
"It was often a matter of 'I owe rent, my bills are past due and I need to buy books, so I don’t have enough money for food.’ People will generally give up something they think they can give up—like food. And they don’t really have a choice—they have to pay utilities, and they have to have a place to live,” said Vice President for Student Affairs Theresa Powell.
According to Temple, College of Education Professor Sara Goldrick-Rab, "Worked with her team at Wisconsin HOPE Lab and Temple's Office of Institutional Research and Assessment to to field the survey online in early fall 2017." It wasn't intended to be a food insecurity survey originally, but rather one about students' college experience as a whole. This finding was just one that stood out when analyzing the results from over 2,300 undergraduate students.
The pantry reveal has also brought a lot of positive remarks from students.
Goldrick-Rab added that food insecurity has not only been a problem here at Temple University but at other college campuses as well, and it can greatly effect students' academic performance as well as life at home.
“If we’re going to educate students, we need to take care of students,” Powell said. “We want students to come to Temple, we want to retain those students and we want them to graduate. It’s important for us to do all that we can to help them be successful, and this is a very simple part of helping students to realize their dreams.”
As one of the major city schools in Philadelphia, Temple has really taken a huge step forward toward making a difference in our community.