By Dylan Hart
Student Government wants to make sure that no student is left hungry.
The SG senate unanimously passed Resolution S19-001, named “Feed-A-Bull St. Pete,” at the Jan. 28 general assembly meeting.
The resolution aims to open a food pantry for students on campus. It was drafted by student body president Kaeden Kelso and senator Gregory Cote.
“There needs to be a food bank on campus,” Kelso said. ”I believe every campus should have a food bank to help students with food insecurity.”
The Feed-A-Bull St. Pete legislation is based on a similar program on the USF Tampa campus, which has existed since September 2015.
Kelso said that his inspiration for drafting the legislation came from former student body president David Thompson, who wanted to address financial insecurity, including food insecurity, during his tenure in 2017 and 2018.
While the resolution cites data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. National Library of Medicine on college student food insecurity, it also states that there is a “demonstrated need for this service on the USF St. Petersburg campus.”
Staff members at USF St. Petersburg can send referrals regarding a particular student’s food insecurity to the Dean of Students office. The referrals are then picked up by Dean Jacob Diaz, who will reach out to the students to address their needs.
“Talking with Dean Diaz, it’s clear that there is a need for it on our campus,” Kelso said. “After I heard that, I knew we needed to work on this and get this done as soon as possible.”
Kelso did not have a clear estimate on how long it will take for the food pantry to open, but SG aims to complete it by the end of the spring semester, and Kelso guaranteed that it will be open “within 2019.”
Student Government is considering different locations for the food pantry but is “leaning heavily” on a storage space in SLC 1300. It also plans on working with the Dean of Students office to provide student employees to check visitors in and out of the pantry.
The USF Tampa food pantry has a dietitian on staff and several fully stocked shelves and is open four days a week. A Nov. 21 article from the USF St. Petersburg website says that the pantry “has distributed more than 24,000 pounds of food to students in need.”
“Since this is our first one, it’s going to be fairly basic,” Kelso said. “When the pantry at USF Tampa started, they started small. We hope to get to their level.”
The pantry will be funded by Student Government, but Kelso anticipates that costs will be minimal, as the pantry will rely on food donations, similar to the one in Tampa. Student Government funding will go toward shelves.
“I’ve already had people contact me about donating food,” Kelso said. “The community loves what’s going on right now and they hope it actually comes to fruition.”
