Each Friday, students unload thousands of pounds of food and quickly stock shelves at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s pantry, just in time for shoppers to arrive.
The Open Seat Food Pantry serves an average of 1,500 visitors a month. Last fall, the number of visits nearly doubled from the previous year.
“We’ve seen a huge, huge, huge increase in demand” for food help on campus in recent years, said Chloe Shomo, an incoming UW-Madison senior who works at the pantry.
Madison College also has seen an increased need for food assistance, and to accommodate that growth the school recently relocated its pantry to an upgraded space, with an e-pantry and more ways to access healthier food, said Denise Holin, a student health educator and pantry coordinator.
From last summer to this spring, the Cupboard Student Food Pantry helped nearly 1,600 students and distributed over 20,000 pounds of food and supplies at Madison College’s Truax and Goodman South campuses, Holin said.