The region’s growing problem of food insecurity in recent years has prompted local colleges to get involved, opening campus food pantries to ensure students have access to food when they need it .
Four colleges along a seven-mile stretch of North Tamiami Trail – Ringling College of Art and Design, New College of Florida, University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee and State College of Florida – as well as South Florida State College in the county from DeSoto. all operate food pantries for their students, some for several years.
According to 2020 data from the Florida Department of Health, the food insecurity rate in Sarasota County was 10.8% and 11.2% in Manatee County, compared to a state average of 10.6%.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as the lack of consistent access to enough food for each member of a household to lead an active, healthy life.
A university community gets involved
On the State College of Florida campus in Bradenton, the school recently held a successful food drive in which faculty and staff competed by department to collect items for its food pantry.
“I was amazed at how many departments signed up and offered to donate food,” said Tessa Bravata, SCF student life coordinator.
These student pantries typically offer non-perishable staples such as canned goods, pasta, and peanut butter. Most also offer toiletries like deodorant and razors. At SCF, this also includes pet food and diapers.
Bravata said supplies have been low since Hurricane Idalia hit Southwest Florida in August. “Our pantry is really lacking in donations because the community is in great need. »
Like other colleges, the SCF food pantry relies on donations from the community, primarily from faculty and staff, as well as an occasional grant. “The Sarasota County Community Foundation has helped us greatly over the last couple of years, especially when the hurricane hit and then COVID,” Bravata said.
The All Faiths Food Bank partnered with New College in 2019. The New College food pantry receives an average of about 130 visits per month, according to All Faiths Director of Strategic Communications Nina Harrelson.
All Faiths also provides items to the South Florida State College DeSoto County Campus Food Pantry, which averages about 420 visits per month and is open to students, faculty and their families.
Fill the need
SCF’s pantry is also busy, Bravata said, noting that she is constantly restocking items. “I see students every day who need to use the pantry. Right now, they are struggling to pay their school fees, pay for their books, or simply buy basic necessities. »
SCF’s student population is as diverse as the community itself. “Sometimes it’s a working parent who has multiple children,” Bravata said. “Sometimes it’s someone coming back to school for the first time, or an 18-year-old fresh out of high school who’s being told, ‘All right, you’re 18. Congratulations. Go support yourself, find an apartment.’
Students without a support system sometimes do not have reliable access to food. “The pantry helps ease the burden,” she said.
SCF has food pantries on each of the school’s three campuses, in Bradenton, Venice and Lakewood Ranch, serving approximately 200 to 300 users annually. “We make sure they are all stocked to the capacity they need so the student body can come and use them.”
A few miles south at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, the Support-A-Bull food pantry is available to students who can either submit an application virtually or “stop by the pantry whenever the building is open,” Health and Wellness said. Brittany Aburto, coordinator, adding that privacy rules make it difficult to estimate its overall usage.
Even students who live on campus and have access to dining halls are not safe from food insecurity. Dining hall hours and class times do not always match; a student’s ability to leave campus may be an issue without transportation.
The two schools with dormitories, New College and Ringling College, are located in a largely commercial part of town, with no supermarkets within walking distance of campus.
Neither New College nor Ringling responded to requests for information about their food pantries.
A countywide problem
Harrelson, of All Faiths Food Bank, says they are distributing more food and seeing an increased need due to sharp increases in the costs of rent, food, insurance and gas, as well as recent crises of COVID-19, inflation and hurricanes Ian and Idealie.
According to All Faiths, in Sarasota County, nearly 9 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. A United Way report indicates that of the 204,000 households in Sarasota in 2021, 38% lived below the ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) economic level, meaning they earned more than the federal poverty line, but not enough to receive assistance to meet their basic household needs. such as housing, food, childcare, transportation, health care, etc.
According to Feeding America:
· In Florida, 2,314,370 people face hunger, including 613,180 children.
· In the United States, in 2022, 44.2 million people lived in food insecure households.
· 7.3 million children lived in food insecure households in which both children and adults were food insecure.
For more data, visit All Faiths Food Bank Website.
Jim DeLa is a reporter for the Community News Collaborative. Contact him at jdela@cncfl.org.