Gleaning From Pandemic-Era Food Pantry Operations to Benefit Basic Needs Programs

Yes, there is still much to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic, and for student affairs practitioners in higher education, that includes well-being in the realm of food insecurity and basic needs. Writing in the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, two University of California–Irvine researchers share what they have gleaned from a comparative study of seven food pantries that operated within the University of California system between 2020 and 2022 and propose implementable takeaways for today’s pantries.

The need for food pantries and the important service they provide the campus community are seemingly irrefutable, as are the challenges posed to these services, and more broadly across the United States, especially during the pandemic. Earlier research on the effects of the pandemic as cited by the authors, Vivianna Goh and Karna Wong, for this study show that the pandemic disrupted K–12 student access to school lunch meals to the tune of over 169 million missed breakfasts and lunches per week.

In California, according to the 2022 University of California Basic Needs Initiative, 38% of undergraduate students were impacted by food insecurity in 2020. Nationally, that same year, approximately 20% of the students at a U.S. public university experienced a loss of employment and over half had a change in housing. Other research published between 2020 and 2024 on the effects of the pandemic on students found that:

• Food insecurity tended to be more severe for students who lost income due to changes in employment or housing.
• Outcomes were worse for students of lower socioeconomic status in online settings .
• Decreased funding negatively impacted underrepresented students’ success rates because of the increased costs of education, diminished scholarships, and reduced academic support.

With that landscape, Goh and Wong examined the challenges faced at the 10 food pantries and then looked for transferable methods that worked during the pandemic and that might be worth implementing on today’s campuses where food insecurity and overall student well-being remains an ongoing concern.

“Student affairs and basic needs providers can implement some of the innovative strategies adopted by the UC campuses to improve student services, increase access to programs, and develop online systems,” Goh and Wong write in “Pivoting During COVID-19: Campus Pantries’ Innovations and Community Partnerships.” Among other things, they found that, “Pantries that served university staff and the surrounding community enabled students to interact with or assist populations that are often ‘invisible’ or overlooked.”

Generally, each of the pantries, in some form or another, transitioned between four distribution models. Within each of the models, changes and adaptations were made to traditional operational methods to enhance safety, improve and/or streamline work conditions, and increase food availability. 

• Grocery store: Clients may enter the pantry and select their items. 
• Grab-and-go: Clients receive items in a bag or box prepared by pantry staff. 
• Outdoor: Clients select their items at an outdoor booth. 
• Online ordering system: Clients select their items from a website and schedule a time for pick-up. 

The research was guided by sensemaking theory, which involves constructing a reality by creating meaning from prior knowledge, experiences, values, and beliefs. In it, individuals engage with others to construct new meanings that strengthen ways of organizing and understanding information related to complex problems, such as an unexpected event or situation that creates uncertainty. Sensemaking has been described as a three-step cognitive process: creation (noticing an event), interpretation (attempting to formulate an explanation), and enactment (articulating an understanding and action regarding the event). For this study, the researchers focused on the third step of enactment to compare how UC pantry administrators responded to the needs of clients while also experiencing the pandemic firsthand. Through surveys and interviews, the retrospective sensemaking process of UC pantry administrators was investigated as they adapted to unpredictable environmental conditions.

As for their methodology, from March 2022 to August 2022, Goh and Wong contacted UC pantry administrators by e-mail with study information and a link to the electronic, 32-question survey. The survey included questions about staffing, population served, hours of operation, food options, basic needs items, programs, and services. The interview guide included 18 questions regarding the administrator’s role at their campus pantry, best practices and challenges experienced, changes in pantry operations, and plans for the pantry.

Pantry operations ranged from three to seven days per week, and from three to 12 hours per day. All served undergraduates and graduate students, and three pantries provided services to university staff and faculty. Five pantries had eligibility requirements, such as asking students for their identification card or limiting how many times clients could visit. Pantry administrators reported an average budget of $565,000, ranging from about $30,000 to $2 million (it is unclear if this budget was exclusively for food pantries or additional basic needs services). All pantries were funded by the State of California and received additional funding from individual donations, university donations, and student fees.

With the onset of COVID-19, pantries shifted food distribution to outdoors and various locations, with some shifting to outdoor food box distribution events on-campus after vaccines became available.

Around holidays, prepackaged grocery bundles and food boxes were distributed from the university parking lot, with each box weighing about 60 pounds at Thanksgiving as it included an entire meal (turkey, vegetables, and dessert) for a group of people or family. Outdoor distribution under tents or canopies was conducted weekly on one campus, which was found to be “intensive [and required] a lot of volunteer manpower as well as time” to set up. Clients pointed to the items that they wanted, and staff would pack the bags for them. When another pantry could not operate out of the usual space when the university student center closed, an outdoor “pop-up” food distribution operation was established at different campus locations. After reopening, one student center secured a permanent space after vendors closed their businesses, allowing for access to a walk-in refrigerator and freezer, and an increase in the variety of fresh foods (such as produce, eggs, and proteins) that followed. 

Converting to an online ordering system allowed for longer hours of operation and increased the number of orders by as much as 50 per day. By visiting the pantry website, guests could add items to a cart and then set a day and time to pick up the order. To ensure crowd control, pick-up times were scheduled in 15-minute intervals. Virtual queue systems were also created using management tools like Google Form, Qless, Acuity Scheduling, and Campus Groups.

Some other methods, tools and planning methodsused included:

• Partnering with residence halls to recover food and offer free meals.
• Hosting online nutrition and cooking workshops using pantry ingredients.
• Partnering with the financial aid office to review and track applications for an electronic grocery gift card program.
• Obtaining food from student farms and gardens in exchange for funding paid student jobs and internships. This pantry offered course credit to student interns, which provided leadership and job training opportunities.
• Working with local campus convenience stores to distribute donated sandwiches.
• Partnering with local organizations, food banks, grocery stores, and corporations to provide food, masks, toiletries, and cleaning supplies.
• Emailing students grocery store gift cards, which were in high demand.
• Establishing a partnership with local farmsto obtain a variety of healthy organic and local produce. 
• Offering a free transportation program for clients to receive the COVID-19 vaccine using Lyft.
• Collaborating with caseworkers from county social services to host events called “CalFresh enrollment parties.” The enrollment process usually takes about a month, but by working with county social services, the process was cut to about three days.
• Creating alternative programs (small loans, grants, or gift cards) to assist clients ineligible for government food programs, such as undocumented students, international students, students who are dependents of their parents, and students whose household income may exceed program guidelines.

Overall, increased demands for food were met through the adaptation of new systems, including grocery gift card programs where demand outstripped applications, and food box distribution programs where recipients sometimes waited as long as two hours to receive supplies. Goh and Wong found that by using sensemaking to engage clients, understand the pandemic, and make decisions, the UC pantries, while faced with temporarily shutting down operations or reducing hours, were simultaneously able to extend services for staff, students, and community members. 

Reference

Vivianna Goh & Karna Wong (2025) Pivoting During COVID-19: Campus Pantries’ Innovations and Community Partnerships, Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 62:4, 474-486, DOI: 10.1080/19496591.2024.2438200