The Nutritious U Food Pantry offers University of Minnesota students a variety of different foods from fruits and vegetables, canned goods and dry pasta, to frozen foods like meat.
Nutritious U started in 2017 and is available to all students every other week on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 12-5 p.m. in Coffman Union.
The pantry is available to all students and supplies them with kitchen staples, produce and foods for people with different dietary restrictions, Director of Public Health at Boynton Health Michelle Trumpy said. When students visit Nutritious U, they are able to pick 11 items to ensure everyone who attends has a diverse selection of foods to choose from.
“We really strive to have a low-barrier way to access the food pantry,” Trumpy said. “We do an evaluation on a very regular basis, and, from that we know, 100% of students feel welcome at the pantry and 97% feel comfortable there.”
Nutritious U recently started supplying Halal goat meat at the pantry for Muslim students, Trumpy said.
“The Halal goat meat was gone in 15 minutes,” Trumpy said. “That went very well, we will do that again.”
When students come to Nutritious U they do not need to prove their need, Trumpy said. Students do not need to come to the pantry consistently to get food from the pantry either.
“Food insecurity happens on a continuum. There could be a situation for students where one month, money is really tight,” Trumpy said. “And so they need to visit the food pantry that month, but maybe they don’t need to visit the next month. It’s different for every student.”
Sabrina Corbera, a second-year student who attends Nutritious U regularly, said it is difficult for her to access grocery stores near her apartment.
“Last year, I lived in an apartment with my roommate and we didn’t have many places to go that were super nearby,” Corbera said. “So we did kind of rely on the food that we had here.”
Fourth-year student Laichia Vang said the food offered is always reliable.
“What I really enjoy coming to this food pantry is knowing that I can at least walk away to find something,” Vang said. “I always really appreciate their freezer items especially if they have meat. Meats are so expensive.”
While waiting in line to use the pantry for the first time, second-year student Bhuvan Sakhamuru said he was excited to try it out.
“I usually have to take the light rail somewhere when I want to get groceries,” Sakhamuru said. “But having this here is nice because it’s such an accessible location on campus.”
Trumpy said the pantry has expanded over the years since it started, first being open only once a month.
Even in recent years, the pantry has continued to grow, Trumpy said.
“We’re serving about 1,800 students a month, and that is up from last year; it was about 1,400 students a month,” Trumpy said. “So we know the number of students who are able to visit the pantry is increasing.”
Nutritious U is expanding the types of resources available to students as well, providing safe sex materials like condoms, Trumpy said. Beyond safer sex materials, the pantry is trying out offering personal hygiene items like toothpaste.
“We know that they’re expensive and they’re an important part of the needs of students,” Trumpy said. “The trials have been going very well. And so we are looking at what we can source consistently.”
Nutritious U is a large operation with 11 employees and many volunteers, according to Trumpy.
The pantry gets its food from multiple vendors, such as The Good Acre, the Student Organic Farm and E.A. Sween Company, Trumpy said.
“Every Monday we receive anywhere between three and 7,000 pounds of food,” Trumpy said. “And it takes about 50 hours of staff and volunteer time to unpack all of it.”
