ASPSU established a food pantry this year, which is currently located in ASPSU’s office in 117 Smith Memorial Student Union. It encourages students to drop by the office if they are in need of food and cannot afford it.
“We have over 3,000 pounds of food at the moment to offer students,” said ASPSU President Jonathan Sanford.
“The initial 2,000 pounds of food was attained by working with the American Sign Language Association. They had a comedy night last term where they gathered the initial food for the pantry and helped it get underway,” he said.
The pantry not only offers free food to those in need, but also entices students to come into the office for various social services. ASPSU hopes to have enough food to regularly feed a student for up to a few days, and is working with the Student Senate on campaigns related to healthy food opportunities for students.
Through the food pantry, students can get information regarding other available student and social services like counseling and job placement services on and off campus.
Originally, the food pantry was supposed to be located where the Vanguard’s advertising office used to be on the first floor of the SMSU. However, the Smith Space Committee informed ASPSU that the new Spirit Store would take the advertising office place instead. The food pantry’s permanent location has yet to be decided by the committee.
“As for having an actual institutionalized space, the ASPSU food pantry will go through the same process of acquiring space that other groups on campus must go through,” said Senator Selina Poulsen, who is currently managing the operation.
“My connection to the food pantry is the same as any other student,” she said. “I know that there is a need on campus, I have even used the resources of the food pantry so I could afford textbooks for class.”
Poulsen welcomes anyone who would be interested in getting involved to make PSU a better place for students. Those wanting to help are encouraged to volunteer and to bring food for the pantry.
Another ASPSU goal is to launch a book exchange program.
“We hope to have a food pantry as well as a clothing and book exchange for the students,” Sanford said. “We just need a space for it.”
The book exchange would allow students to get used or discounted books from other students.
Sanford also hopes to set up a link between the student accounts and the book-buying process to enable students to charge their books without having to wait for financial aid disbursements to go through, enabling students who are in need to have their books at the same time as other students on campus.
“I am trying to set up a mutual aid program where students can establish a community,” Sanford said.
If Oregon’s current debate over budget cuts takes a turn for the worse, ASPSU is taking steps to prepare for possible repercussions through programs like the food pantry, Sanford said. The food pantry is one step towards bringing more attention to the social service programs that could be impacted by the loss of any funding to the Oregon University system.
“We all understand the difficulties of college life, and we are here to help,” Sanford said.