WINNER OF 2023 ASSOCIATED COLLEGIATE PRESS PACEMAKER AWARD, NEWSPAPER/NEWSMAGAZINE NAMED BEST CAMPUS NEWSPAPER IN CALIFORNIA FOR 2022 BY THE CALIFORNIA COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION AND CALIFORNIA NEWS PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Volume 163 No. 10 WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
SERVING SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
A&E
A&E
Sports
SJSU community celebrates Hispanic Heritage month
Beetlejuice returns to the big screen after 36 years
SJSU football team continues winning streak
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ALEJANDRA GALLO | SPARTAN DAILY
The Spartan Food Pantry window art is visible near the entrance of the Student Union, accesible to all students at the San José State University main campus.
Food pantry fuels SJSU students By Alejandra Gallo STAFF WRITER
The Spartan Food Pantry plans on supporting students at San José State in the years to come, and hopes to assist more and more students by providing better quality of food. Brenjielyn Cuneta, SJSU Basic Needs coordinator for the Spartan Food Pantry, said SJSU Cares runs the food pantry, providing a walk-in food assistance program for students experiencing food insecurity and hunger, according to a webpage from SJSU. Cuneta said SJSU Cares offers guidance and support to students who utilize the food pantry. She said SJSU Cares connects students with other services and resources that can further assist them in meeting their other basic needs. Justice studies sophomore, Rachael Maldonado said she has been using the pantry since the Fall 2023 semester. “A lot of students are low on cash, so this pantry is super convenient,” Maldonado said. She said it is very helpful for students who live on campus because many students do not have cars and cannot leave campus to buy groceries. Cuneta said given the rising prices of groceries and other necessities, food insecurity is a continual battle for many SJSU
students, many of whom are living on their own for the first time. Roughly 29% of SJSU students experience food insecurity, according to a survey by SJSU Cares. Students who are African American and first-generation college students experience the highest level of food insecurity, according to the same study by the CSU. In the past year, a little more than 37,000 students used the pantry which is a 373% increase from the 2020-21 year, according to SJSU Cares 2022-2023 Annual Report. The food pantry has been open since 2019 and has provided help to hundreds of students every single day with basic needs support, according to this webpage. National prevalence rates for food insecurity in 2016 was 12.3%, resulting in college students emerging as a new food insecure population, according to a 2018 study conducted by the CSU. Cuneta said she believes that food insecurity is something that hinders students' ability to focus and learn effectively as they build their careers. Though research on the effect that food insecurity has on mental health in college students is limited, food insecurity has been linked to lower academic performance in K-12 students, according to a study conducted by the CSU.
For the Fall 2024 semester, students must have an approved intake form and have an annual income of $34,263 or less to use the program, according to the SJSU Cares Spartan Food Pantry webpage. Graduate student Suresh Ravuri, from India studying software engineering, uses the pantry frequently. “I come here once a week to stock up on food and it has been a huge help for me,” Ravuri said. He said the quality of the food pantry is beneficial because it has provided him with support for the last year and a half. Cuneta said the students are allowed to use the pantry once every calendar week in order for there to be enough food for all the students who use the pantry. Ravuri said he likes to visit the food pantry early in the week because there aren’t as many food options by the time he visits the pantry on Friday. He said students need to pay attention to the food items they buy. “Pay attention to the expiration date on the food items because most of them are about to expire,” Ravuri said. Ravuri said the quality of food is good overall, but he wishes he could see better quality food in the future or food that is not about to expire. He said he would also like to see more variation in food because much of the protein that they offer
is chicken, but sometimes he gets bored of eating the same thing. Cuneta said the pantry operates Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the school year. She said the pantry operates three days a week over the summer, although it been closed during other previous summer breaks. Cuneta said the Spartan Food Pantry is operating with a reduced schedule because there are fewer students on campus during the summer. “Not many students know that the pantry is open over the summer,” Ravuri said. “But over the summer, there is a considerable number of students and there’s also more food since there aren’t as many students.” The food pantry has had 50,000 visits since it opened inside the Diaz Compean Student Union in 2019, according to a webpage from SJSU. International graduate student Sai Kiran Sundara, a student from India studying computer software engineering, is grateful for the food pantry. “During my undergraduate degree, my university didn’t offer a food pantry,” Sundara said. “I also didn’t know of any other colleges around me that offered this service to college students.” Sundara said all colleges should provide these services because students would be able to focus on studies rather than
getting food. The California State University (CSU) system has tried to manage food insecurity problems by addressing the student populations that have reported the highest level of food insecurity and homelessness, a 2018 study conducted by the CSU. They have also created a linkage in programs intended to enhance traumainformed approaches to ensure that students’ basic needs are met, according to the same 2018 CSU survey. The Spartan Food Pantry is meant to provide assistance to these students to hopefully reduce – in any way possible – the financial burden they experience in assessing nutrition to support their academic success,” Cuneta said. Although CSU schools are taking more initiatives to address food insecurity problems, 41.6% of CSU students report food insecurity, according to the 2018 CSU survey. Cuneta said the food insecurity issues students face also interfere with their academic performance and work hours She said it also hurts their mental and physical health. “It can be stressful to deal with classes and the work we have in school while also worrying about what you’re going to eat,” Sundara said. “The food pantry has helped me alleviate that stress but
without it, I think I would be much more stressed.” Cuneta said the food pantry plans on receiving a new freezer very soon which will allow more protein options such as poultry. She said the program hopes to collaborate with Second Harvest, a food bank that rescues donated food and distributes them to nonprofits and institutions to help distribute food samples and host cooking lessons that include the food in the pantry. Cuneta said the food pantry is also wor k i ng t ow ard identifying parenting students to navigate additional assistance and arrangements that can be provided for them as they carry these responsibilities on campus and at home. The Spartan Food Pantry has thus far provided help to hundreds of students struggling with food insecurity and plans on continuing to do so, according to Cuneta. “The food pantry has provided me with so much support over the past year,” grad student Ravuri said. “I am really grateful for this help.”
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