Bear Pantry started as an "act of love" from students, faculty and staff to help other students to address food insecurity. Now this initiative has grown to be the recipient of grants and donations from the Weld Trust and the Weld Food Bank. In February a new Center for Student Well-being that includes the Bear Pantry and other services will open at the University Center (29:12).
Andrew
Hello and welcome back to Bear in Mind, a podcast dedicated to all things UNC. I am your host, Andrew Galster. And in the studio today with me are.
Taylor
Hello. My name is Taylor Schiestel. I am the director of student outreach and support.
Freddie
My name is Freddie. I am a master's student here studying clinical mental health counseling. And I'm the graduate assistant for the Bear Pantry.
Andrew
What is the Bear Pantry? Bear pantry, aptly named, is a food pantry for UNC students, Today, I'm hoping that they can tell me a little bit more about food options for students and all the great services they offer. Freddie, Taylor, welcome.
Freddie
Thank you.
Taylor
Yeah. Thank you.
Andrew
Cool. Thank you for being here with me today.
Freddie
Yeah. Thank you.
Andrew
So I know literally nothing about Bear Pantry.
Freddie
Well, we're excited to, tell you more. It's, honestly, such a phenomenal resource for students and staff on campus. So, essentially, we are just a food pantry for all students, staff and faculty. It's free for all students, staff and faculty. All you have to have right now is your bear number. Guests can come in once a week, get up seven items every single week. We have kind of a variety of items. And, we quantify certain items differently depending on, maybe like their nutritional value or like how much, maybe food it is. So like, for example, pack a ramen doesn't count as much as maybe like a pack of, chicken or meat or something like that.
And we offer kind of a wide variety of products. We have, a whole section with like, hygiene items. So, soaps, shampoos, conditioners, toilet paper, paper towel. And then we have items that actually don't count towards people's item list. So, for example, like menstrual products we give out for free. So menstrual products don't count. We also have courtesy of Office of Health Promotion, which is super awesome. They're awesome over there. They help us out with sexual health items too. So, we don't count sexual health items towards, towards people's item list. And then just kind of a wide variety of food products, too. We get, we have an amazing partnership with Weld Food Bank. So we get a lot of food from, Weld Food Bank. So we'll get, things like, lots of canned food. So we'll get, like, canned soups, canned vegetables, canned meats. But we also get things such as, like frozen meats. So we'll get a lot of, like, frozen chicken, maybe frozen beef products. Sometimes we'll get, like, frozen meals, too.
Andrew
I don't know why, but I was just under the assumption that it was just all prepackaged food and then, like, nothing else. So it's cool. I didn't even, maybe it was a little ignorant of me, but I didn't even think that you guys would have like, you know, hygiene products. It's dope.
Freddie
Yeah, yeah, it's, it's pretty cool. A lot of we kind of get our, our stuff from a variety of people and organizations on campus. Super cool thing about the Bear Pantry is, is kind of like a really neat, community effort. So, lots of people like, come in and dedicating time and, and giving items to the pantry. It just, it helps a ton of students, I love that.
Andrew
Yeah, I love that. I was going to ask and you kind of already answered this for me, but you, you get the food you supply and the other products that you supply both from. You said, Weld County Food Pantry and then you can take, donations?
Freddie
Yeah.
Taylor
Yeah, we do, accept donations. We typically have some events that happen on campus. So we partner a lot with like, fraternities and sorority life. And then we also have partnered with athletics, I believe, too, during, just donating canned foods at games and then also different dining is a huge, also partner of ours as well. You probably notice that each, place where you can eat, there's a little can this is donate to the Bear Pantry and that helps us, purchase food items. But yeah, our biggest partnership comes from the Weld Food Bank, where we get the majority of our food from there. And then also, we have really generous, donations from staff and faculty who take payroll deduction.
Andrew
Oh, wow.
Taylor
Yeah. And then we also, accept any sort of community donations from like, alumni or huge, donators that donate to us. And then we can use those funds and we go to Kroger for things that we can't get at the Weld Food Bank.
Andrew
Wow. Cool. Wow. So you guys are getting stuff from everywhere. It makes me so warm inside. That's great.
Taylor
It’s kind of what Freddie said, the Bear Pantry is the university's act of love. It was created in 2014 by students, staff and faculty who wanted to help other folks.
Andrew
Really? Oh I didn’t know.
Taylor
Yeah, it wasn't even, really like a huge, like, like funded thing. For the longest time, it was just out of, the generosity of students, staff and faculty and it has made it obviously what it is into now. All because of students, staff and faculty were just very, generous and wanted to help their campus community.
Andrew
Cool. Yeah. So let's say I'm a student, which I am, believe it or not. And I want to go check out the Bear Pantry. All I have to have is my ID. I don't have to like apply or anything?
Taylor
You don't even have to have your ID. All you have to do is come in and, get your seven items. If you do not know your bear ID, we can help us to that. We're right next to the card office, and they can actually assist you with, figuring out what your bear ID number is, but just come in and we have everything set up on a tablet or a QR code that you can use your phone to, enter in all of the information that we need currently.
Andrew
Oh, yeah. And again, you kind of already answered this, but where is the Bear Pantry?
Freddie
It's just located on the second floor of the University Center. It's, kind of in the corner between our student affairs front desk office and the card office. So where people go and get their, actual physical bear ID. We're just right in the corner currently.
Andrew
Yep. Gotcha. All right. I'll have to venture on up there. I don't even think I've ever been to second floor of that. You see something totally honest.
Freddie
Yeah. That's fair. Yeah. Come check it out. Yeah. It's just it's not too far away from, like, the big ballrooms.
Andrew
Oh, cool. Okay. Perfect. Yeah. As you said, founded in 2014, it's pretty recent, all things considered, given how old UMC is. So that's super cool. Are there any plans for the future for the Bear Pantry? Anything in the work?
Taylor
Oh my goodness. There are so many things that we are so excited about. So thank you for asking that question.
Andrew
Sure.
Taylor
So like I said, it was created in 2014 and I think everyone would be, thrilled to hear that it did start in a tiny little closet in one of the residence halls. Then it moved to Michener in a tiny little closet in Michener. And now it surprised. We've gotten a lot of space since it's moved to Student Affairs. And that's probably surprising to a lot of people who visit the pantry and see how small it is, because we can maybe fit four people in there and it's pretty uncomfortable. So we recently had gotten a grant from the Weld Trust to expand the pantry greatly, immensely. I think it's like three times the size of what it currently is. And so now we're going to be we're soon to move downstairs in the UC, kind of near the Munchy Mart, right next to the Munchy Mart where that student lounge was. And it's kind of like a little bit of a rebrand. Bear Pantry will stay the same. It'll still be called Bear Pantry, but we are combining that with, student basic needs services and creating a one stop shop for students to get help with any sort of needs that they're, needing attended to. So food insecurity, housing, affordable health care, mental health, affordable mental health services, all of that is going to be like a, like a social work hub, called the Center for Student Well-Being. And, I know there were a couple of students who were a little bummed that the student lounge was getting ripped out, but I also want to ensure students that there's still going to be a lounge area. Right outside of that, we're just going to combine it with the Center for Student Well-Being and case managers, who are dedicated to helping, student basic needs, and also a new, expanded way bigger Bear Pantry with more stock, and also some really exciting things that we haven't been able to do upstairs as well, like, having more produce and being able to wash and process produce.
Andrew
Oh, I love that. Yeah, I love that. Not that I cook all that often anymore now, but I don't have a car, so going to get groceries is such a pain. So that's so cool. That's so cool.
Taylor andFreddie
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Andrew
So I'm assuming all the construction that we've been hearing day in and day out in the UC is all going towards this?
Taylor
It absolutely is.
Andrew
Oh, that's so exciting.
Taylor
So yeah, it's very exciting. We are ecstatic about it. We can can hardly wait in the anticipated opening for that is going to be, late January too. So it's a pretty fast turnaround.
Andrew
Wow. Wait. So this January. I love it. Yeah I'm so excited.
Taylor
Yeah it's awesome
Andrew
I feel like that'll be good for the the people to know about the Bear Pantry too. If it's also just like right there.
Freddie
Yeah I think where it's going to be located. It's, it's a really accessible area which, which I, which I really appreciate for our students. Because, even as you said, there may not, may not be a whole lot of people that have even come up to the second floor of the UC. Right? So, we'll be able to potentially reach even more students that really need the Bear Pantry, because, you know, it's right next to Munchy Mart, right by Subway, just down the hall from, like, the bookstore. And then all of, like the, the restaurants, like, the, burger joint. What's that called?
Andrew
Burger Bar. Yeah.
Freddie
Burger and Co. Something burger. Something Einsteins like. It's just right down the way from there. So, Yeah, it's it's going to be great, I think. I think we'll be able to reach, reach a lot more students that are, really needing it, especially right now.
Andrew
Yeah, I love that, I love that, so, with the current Bear Pantry, how do you guys run that staff wise? Is it, like, volunteer or man hours?
Freddie
Yeah. So, I, I'm in charge of day-to-day operations, so I'm there during all, open hours. I'm a grad assistant. So there's, I have, just a certain amount of time each week that I'm, required to be at the pantry. So I just kind of base based the pantry hours around my, school schedule. Just so that way I can be there, and then, we have absolutely phenomenal volunteers. I want to give a shout out to all of our volunteers. We've had we've had a, quite a few volunteers, I think, last fiscal year. So from last July, so July 1st of 2023 to June 30th of 2024. I'm pretty sure we had a total of 65 volunteers that volunteered throughout the year. So, I just, we appreciate them more than anything. They dedicate a lot of time and energy and effort to ensuring that all of the guests that use the Bear Pantry are feeling welcomed, feeling destigmatize with coming to a food pantry and just creating a very helping create a very warm and welcoming atmosphere. So, usually we have, two volunteers at a time. Sometimes we'll have a third, depending on how busy it is. If we have like a really, big restock day and we have a ton of food that we need to, organize and put away, sometimes we'll take on another volunteer and then, we'll also do, like, other events throughout the semester that require more volunteers. So for example, upcoming we have, like a turkey handout. So we'll be handing out full turkeys and then packs of turkey breasts, for students. So, we'll just be doing it at the Bear Pantry here in about a week and a half or so.
Andrew
Exciting.
Freddie
And then we'll just take on more volunteers with that. So, yeah, as of right now, it's, it's us doing kind of the day-to-day. And then, Taylor is here to, kind of provide oversight with, with all of the general functioning of the pantry and then a lot more.
Andrew
Yeah. Busy people, right?
Taylor
Very busy. It's. Yeah, it's I mean, like over overseeing the pantry. It's a, it's a team of two, me and Freddie.
Andrew
Well, thank you guys first and foremost. Yeah,
Taylor
Yeah. Holds a really strong place in our hearts. And so, I mean, like, we just feel so blessed and lucky that we get to do so, like, every single. So. Makes it so enjoyable.
Andrew
This is like it's making me all happy. I'm like, go UNC! And then I'm assuming most of these students are or most of these volunteers are students.
Freddie
Yeah. We also get staff too, honestly. So I love it. And, Taylor, correct me if I'm wrong. I can't remember exactly, but, I think staff are actually allocated about 16 hours of volunteer time per fiscal year. So, a lot of staff members will actually take some time out of their day to come to the pantry and volunteer. Sometimes we'll get staff members that come in that may not just in their day-to-day jobs, they just may not get as much student interaction. So that kind of, fills that gap for them. So, it's kind of cool because, like, I feel like, like me being the G.A., like, I don't, I don't know, like, there's so much, about our campus that I don't know about in so much about our community that I don't know about. And the special thing about having volunteers, whether it be students or staff, they can provide our guests a wide variety of, like, very, amazing knowledge. Just things about maybe like housing or how meal plans work or, maybe events going on at campus that, you know, I might I may not be fully, in touch with or, whatever it may be. So volunteers just are able to provide just a wide, wide spectrum of just, awesome knowledge for guests that come in.
Andrew
Cool. Yeah. So if me as a student wants to go volunteer, share my knowledge, it's not much. Don't get excited. How would I go about that?
Freddie
Yeah. It's honestly a pretty, pretty easy, pretty easy system to get set up to volunteer. If you just email us at bear.pantry@unco.edu, and just say, “hey, I'm interested in volunteering. How can I get started?” We’ll email you back. Just the list of instructions. At this point in time, things might change with our new location. We're still figuring much exciting stuff. Yeah. So, so pumped. We're trying to figure out some logistical things to, allow for a good flow for our new location. And then, we also have, I believe, on our website for our mobile food pantry events, a link up on our website to allow people to volunteer for our mobile food pantry events too.
Andrew
So again, excuse my lack of knowledge, but what our mobile pantry events.
Taylor
I was hoping that you bring that up. Yeah.
Andrew
Perfect segue. Yeah.
Taylor
Pop off Freddie? So the mobile food pantry event is in collaboration with the Weld Food Bank, who, again, like I talked about our amazing partnership with them. They are such a phenomenal resource. They are amazing. They will bring a huge truck filled with fresh produce like, whatever is in season. So we've seen anything from, like, milk, meat and then like potatoes, apples, melons, carrots and every, every produce that like any produce that's in season. And they'll bring it over to our campus and allow students, staff and faculty to come through and get, free fresh produce. And we typically do that every second Tuesday of the month, excluding sorry, I can't think of the months of time I had December,
Freddie
January, May and August.
Taylor
I think, just like when we don't really have students on campus. But yeah, students can come and get like fresh, healthy produce. So it's phenomenal.
Andrew
I again, I love it, right. So come February when it next is happening, where would we find that?
Taylor
So the mobile food pantry is always located in C lot right across from Campus Commons, and it is always from 11:30 to 1:00.
Andrew
Wow. Okay. Cool, cool. Yeah. Super cool. So I guess come February
Freddie
It’s a great resource. And like, you know, we're always trying to get the word out. Just so that way we could try to reach more students that need it. You know, because like, you just never know who's out there that may not have, maybe hasn't just received word yet of, some of the awesome resources that, are provided here on campus. And it really could essentially save a life.
Taylor
I always get so surprised by like, I'll, we'll do tabling events and everything to connect with students. And there's always at least like 1-5 students who come up and they're like, “what's the Bear Pantry? I've never heard of the Bear Pantry.” And I'm like, “oh my gosh, that's crazy. Like, let me tell you more about it.” But, I think even like in the state of Colorado and also like in higher education is starting to really prioritize student well-being and like, student basic needs in particular. And, so with that, we feel like we have like a responsibility to, like, try to get as many people as we can on board. Like, another thing, like a shameless plug with the center for student well-being. We are, also trying to increase our efforts for, like, SNAP enrollment. Because a lot of students have absolutely no idea that they are eligible for SNAP. And there's so much stigma around SNAP and having food stamps, I feel like…
Andrew
I mean, I'm enrolled in SNAP. Yeah, no shame.
Taylor
Yes! And like we want students to know that. Like, if you like, you have so much to worry about. Like class is a valid reason to be stressed out. Like class in your education is something that you should be prioritizing, especially when you're in college and you're spending so much money towards your tuition that it's like if that if food is one less thing you can worry about at the time, then like, let us support you and let us advocate for you and let us help you. And like SNAP is an amazing resource that doesn't have to label you as anything. It's just free money from the state to help you get groceries and be fed and not have to worry about that so you can focus on your schooling. Because no student should ever have to prioritize that over their education. If that can be helped.
Andrew
Yeah, easily. And I mean, from personal experience, I don't think I know a student who's not also working or doing something extracurricular. I, I love it. Why? There's no reason you should be worried. And then. Yeah, like, we were kind of talking about with students not always knowing about Bear Pantry. I heard of Bear Pantry, but I thought I thought it was like some far away mystical thing that I again, I've never been upstairs in the UC, which maybe that's more on me than anything, but. So, like, I'm hoping anything to get the word out, you know, could help.
Taylor
Yeah, yeah. I, I am an alumni and then my parents were alumni, so they oftentimes like to come back and see all the progress,
Andrew
See the old stomping ground.
Taylor
And they're like, oh my gosh, I wish I had a resource like this when I was in college because I was struggling. And like, I can imagine like the economy then and how much things cost then compared to now, I'm like, oh, you. Yeah, it's insane. And so like, no student should ever have to drop out of school because they can't even prioritize that. Like, you should be able to eat and go to school. And, especially with how much things cost nowadays. I understand the concern.
Andrew
Sure. Sure thing. So there's some other resources that students might be able to have access to in addition to the Bear Pantry to help them out through these, you know, often stressful college years.
Taylor
Yeah. So with the center for Student Well-Being, currently it is listed under Student Outreach and Support. So students are might be a little bit more familiar with like S.O.S. or Student Outreach and Support. So basically we're very much interconnected with Bear Pantry obviously I oversee as a director both the Bear Pantry and Student Outreach and Support for very good reason. Oftentimes students will come in and they are at their most vulnerable, especially with Freddie. Freddie, just shout out to Freddie because he has a way of connecting with students that is literally so beautiful. He can meet a student for five minutes and Freddie already knows their middle name. What name their dog is when they were in elementary school.
Andrew
You had me spilling my life story before we recorded.
Taylor
Yes. Freddie just has such a beautiful way of connecting with people and which is like why he's so perfect at his job. And, often times students will come in and they'll be at their most vulnerable with Freddie and feel comfortable enough to express like, the challenges that they might be going through. And Freddie does an amazing job at doing a warm handoff to a lot of our case managers in Student Outreach and Support who can connect them with on and off campus resources. So they do a lot of work with, like food insecurity, housing insecurity, kind of like what I mentioned earlier, getting students connected to mental health or affordable health care, Medicaid, child care. We have an amazing partnership with a nonprofit called Project Self-sufficiency that works with, with single parents who are students. And they basically…
Andrew
Wow.
Taylor
Oh yeah, I could get into that. Like, we'd be here for another, 30 minutes if I was going into Project Self-sufficiency. But they help students, afford school and also afford taking care of a child as well at the same time. So we have resources for pretty much anything regarding student basic needs. I think we prioritize a lot of like, education surrounding that. So students aren't just like coming in and being like, “well, I don't know why I'm getting these resources or like what this means for me.” And a lot of our case managers do a lot of education around that, but then also a lot of like advocacy for our students with like talking to professors, like, this student is going through a rough time and can't, get their wording out to their professors like they don't know how to talk to their professors and get their professors to empathize with them. And so we do a lot of like, advocacy on students behalf of like, here's how we should be handling this situation. And like, what do you think about this? And then making meaningful action steps. So a lot of different on and off campus resources connected within the community. But very much the pantry and outreach and supporter intertwine because we have that warm handoff.
Andrew
I love it. Yeah, I'll say it again, I love it. It's cool stuff. I, I'm glad to see students are being supported. Yeah. Yeah. And it breaks my heart that that's not always a guarantee.
Taylor
Yeah. Yeah. Us too. It's like and then like, you see a lot of retention rates too. And we always want to see people have pride in their university and like their alma mater when they're, when they leave.
And, I don't think people realize how important that is to, like, have a lot of pride. And, some of our students come and they haven't had that advocacy. They haven't had anyone just like, be on their side and listen to what their true needs are. And like, we really hope to do that at the beer pantry and through student outreach and support as well.
Andrew
Cool. Do you guys have any last thoughts you want to tell the world or our audience?
Freddie
Huge shout out to our volunteers. We appreciate them more than anything. I really I we wouldn't be able to do this without our volunteers. Huge shout out to anybody that has come by the pantry and donated food or contribute it with, like, monetary donations. Any, anything, whether it be like, organizations donating equipment or, all of our on campus orgs. Huge shout out to Office of Health Promotion, our research scholars, fraternity and sorority life. There have been so many groups, here on campus that have contributed so greatly, on campus and beyond, to help, Bear Pantry, flourish and to ultimately help our students, be well fed and, be successful here on their journey. Students and staff. So, we just. Yeah, we just wanted to, really emphasize that, means the world. And, they're all making a huge difference.
Taylor
I think hand in hand with that as well. That obviously we've talked about, like the history of the pantry and that it was created by students, staff and faculty for students, staff and faculty.
I think especially now, we the world that we live in can feel so dark and it can feel really rough at times. And I think the pantry and what, what, we get to work with on a day to day basis, like student outreach and support and student basic needs and all of that. It really gives me a lot of hope for the world. It lets me know that, like, the world isn't entirely so dark and that the generation of students that we have right now are so service oriented, and they're so passionate about making the world a better place. And it shows through the pantry, like the pantry would not be what it is without the love of previous and current students, staff and faculty. And so I just want to also like invite anyone to be a part of that, like anyone who wants some light and wants to continue to shine their light in a really dark place. We invite you to be a part of what we're doing at the Bear Pantry, because we need more people like you.
Andrew
God, let me wipe this single tears from my eye. Geez. It's just straight to my heart. Oh my lord.
(laughter)
Well, thank you guys for talking to me today. It's been a pleasure and I will be stopping by the Beard Pantry as soon as I can come and say, oh yeah, come on, definitely go check out Bear's Pantry when you get the chance. They do a lot of fantastic work and with your support, they can continue to do so. Thanks for listening. This has been Bear in Mind I've been your host, Andrew Galster, and I'll catch you next time.
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