By Leslie Pantoja, Hub Editor
Raider Red Food Pantry donations. Photo by Leslie Pantoja.
Jokes about ‘living off ramen’ may seem like a college rite of passage, but they mask a much more serious issue: rampant food insecurity. By normalizing these struggles, such phrases downplay the challenges that many students face in accessing nutritious meals.
The American Psychological Association has reported that several university and college students across the United States report lacking access to a reliable supply of solid, nutritional food.
According to a student financial wellness survey conducted by Trellis Strategies in 2023, 56 percent of Texas Tech students struggled with food insecurity.
Marissa Joy, a junior music education major, has been one of those students.
“It’s scary,” Joy said. “I’ve definitely had my moments where I think ‘am I gonna have enough money for the groceries for the week?’”
For students like Joy, who do not know where their next meal is coming from or if they will even have a next meal, there are resources available.
The Raider Red Pantry, located at Doak Hall in room 117, is an on-campus organization dedicated to helping all enrolled Texas Tech students experiencing food insecurity.
Mary Oyewole is the coordinator for events and outreach at the Raider Red Food Pantry as well as a graduate nutritional sciences major. She stresses the importance of nutritional food needed in order to be academically successful.
“For academic success you need food,” Oyewole said, “not just food, but healthy food that’s nutrient dense to help assimilation, comprehension, and being attentive in class.”
As Oyewole highlighted, the combination of food insecurity and the stress of college life can significantly hinder academic success. Food-insecure students are more likely to experience lower GPAs, diminished class performance, and reduced attendance and completion rates compared to their food-secure peers, according to a report by Health Affairs.
Beyond academics, food insecurity also takes a toll on students’ mental and physical health, contributing to higher rates of stress, depression, and obesity. These students often turn to cheaper, highly processed foods, which further exacerbate health risks like obesity, creating a cycle of poor health and academic outcomes.
To fight this ongoing issue, the Raider Red Food Pantry is stocked with non-perishable and perishable items, as well as hygiene products, to simulate a normal shopping experience where students can choose what they want to take.
A look at the Raider Red Food Pantry inventory. Photo taken by Leslie Pantoja.
“We value students,” Oyewole said. “We want every student to know this is for [them]. You should not feel a push back because you don’t have money to buy food. We also want you to have the grocery experience where you can choose this or that.”
The pantry can be used as many times as needed throughout the semester at no cost to the student. However, usage beyond the first time will be considered after meeting with a Raider Relief staff member, according to the Raider Relief Advocacy and Resource Center.
Other resources offered by the organization are dining buck refills, help with SNAP benefits, snack-spots on campus, transportation to other food pantries, and meat distribution every Thursday morning.
Jocelyn Chiramel, a sophomore psychology major, described her experience of using the Raider Red Food Pantry.
“It was really easy and simple. I really appreciated it because I’m a student and I didn’t have a job at the time,” Chiramel said. “So, having that there and saving money was really good because I was trying to pay for my tuition and that was really stressful. It definitely gave [me] peace of mind that it was there and I’m glad it’s there for other students because I know there are people that have worse situations than me.”
The South Plains Food Bank is another humanitarian organization located in Lubbock, TX, with the purpose of providing to those who face food insecurity in West Texas.
Raider Red Food Pantry snack spots map. Photo provided by Isaiah Ortiz.
They offer plenty of community resources, such as mobile pantries, SNAP education nutrition programs and more.
Chase Head, chief development officer for the South Plains Food Bank, described how their organization works.
“We’ll always have a dry box that goes out to our families in need,” Head said. “In that dry box is where they’ll have the non-perishables. We always put that with fresh produce. We’ll have a freezer bag that a lot of times has proteins in it. Then we always try to have milk with it and a dessert of some sort.”
In an effort to further combat food insecurity and provide fresh produce to the community, the South Plains Food Bank has expanded its operations to growing some of their own food.
“We have a farm and orchard,” Head said. “We will produce about 1,000 apples yearly, and that goes back to the families that we serve.”
Shristi Subudhi, a sophomore biology and pre-medicine major, stated that she feels comfortable knowing these resources are available for students in need.
“I love that,” Subudhi said. “Having that as a safety net and having the pantries there as something you can go to be able to grab something, at least it makes you know that you’re not gonna sleep hungry.”
The negative stigma surrounding food insecurity may affect a students’ sense of self-worth which in turn discourages them from accessing these available programs and services, reported the American Psychological Association.
Joy recounted her past experience with food pantries, even those before stepping foot on campus.
“I grew up very low-income,” Joy said. “My family were people that went to church food banks and that’s how we had our food for the week. So, to have it here on campus and to have it unstigmatized, I think that’s really important.”
Oyewole also denounces the stigma and does not think food insecurity should be treated as a milestone in the journey to obtaining a diploma. “It breaks my heart that some students sleep without food. Some are even going through issues of housing insecurity and things that you would think ‘no, they’re college students, they can afford that,’ but there’s FAFSA,” Oyewole said. “They can get their tuition paid but they can’t get their basic needs to support their academic success.”
The South Plains Food Bank located at 5605 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Photo taken by Leslie Pantoja.
Oyewole says her goal is to help as many students who need the resource be able to have the access they need.
“We don’t want the stigma. We want students to feel included,” Oyewole said. “This isn’t just a right to food, but a right to healthy food.”
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