For Cal Poly students, there are a variety of food, restaurant and market options on campus, but as dining dollars shrink and students begin to swap Grubhub for cooking, most of us turn to spending money in grocery stores. However, as college students, this can get inconvenient and quite expensive quickly.
You may have heard about the Cal Poly Food Pantry at some point, maybe through a club or a class. I discovered it through my women’s health course in my first year. Like many students living in the dorms, I didn’t necessarily consider the food pantry as an option at first because I had a dining plan and there were limited cooking resources. Many of the dorms at Cal Poly, including where I lived—Sierra Madre—have quite cramped and out-of-date kitchens.
As my first year went on, I had gotten sick of ordering flatbread pizza or chicken tenders from Vista Grande every night. I decided that I would stop by the pantry after class one day and check out what my professor had preached about. What I wasn’t expecting was to take a bag of completely free groceries back to my dorm.
Now that I rent an apartment and cook in my kitchen every day, I go on weekly grocery trips for fresh greens and goods. Something that has kept my grocery expenses lower while also being convenient is stopping by the Cal Poly Food Pantry to take the price tag off of some of these groceries. It’s free and easy to access, just a simple swipe of a PolyCard and you can shop til you drop.
There’s often a confusion around food pantries—in people not believing that they are meant for everyone. Many students may feel like they shouldn’t be shopping at the food pantry, as if grabbing products takes away from their lower-income peers. However, it’s the exact opposite, its services welcome everyone, and its accessibility grows as more students interact daily. Any student of any year is eligible to engage with the resources at Cal Poly’s pantry!
When you think of the shelves of a food pantry, cans of tomato soup and boxes of spaghetti may come to mind. However, the Cal Poly Food Pantry is stocked with so much more than you may realize. Indeed, the racks have nonperishable foods like canned vegetables, pasta, rice, oats, pancake mix and vegetable oil. However, there’s also fresh fruits and vegetables that are restocked often; you can find potatoes, lettuce, green onions, bananas and apples in addition to the non-perishables. Some food items are stored in the fridges, including milk and butter. There are even to-go pizza slices and other meals if you need something fast and free!
My favorite part of the food pantry is the drink bar; there’s a hot coffee machine with various creamers and sugars. I have taken an array of green tea bags and Swiss Miss hot cocoa packets stored up for the colder weather. I plan to stop by and grab some more to make warm drinks this winter, and you should too.
Although “food” is in the title, the Cal Poly Food Pantry is not exclusive to just that. It offers a collection of personal hygiene items, including hand sanitizer, face masks, diapers, menstrual products and contraceptives.
The pantry restocks each week, but the shelves get emptier as the week progresses, so I recommend going on Mondays or Tuesdays if you have the time. This is just a tip—the resource is there throughout the school week.
Here is the basic information you need to know before you visit. The on-campus pantry is open from 8:30 am–6 pm every Monday through Friday, and you can find it in the Campus Health and Wellbeing Building (Building 27, Room 10). The entrance is just past the Rec Center and the Climbing Wall, and you should see a sign with chalk drawings welcoming you down a ramp into the food pantry.
If you want to get in contact with someone involved in the program, you can reach out to the Basic Needs Taskforce. The main Cal Poly Food Pantry webpage has even more information for you to explore before you check out this amazing resource.
This is a call to all Mustangs, of any year–the food pantry is waiting for you!