Pictured Above: Gregory Cote, a graduate student studying biotechnology at Morsani College of Medicine, facilitated the opening and funding of the Support-A-Bull Market at USF St. Petersburg during his time serving on student government.
Catherine Hicks | The Crow’s Nest
By Catherine Hicks
When Gregory Cote, chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations at the time, contributed to the formation of the USF St. Petersburg Support-A-Bull Market, he never expected that, less than a year after it’s opening, it would be used to supply food to students struggling during a global pandemic.
“My role was to get the Student Government, and by extension, the student body on board,” Cote said. “I performed research for the project, and determined a(n) estimated need for our campus. My role was also to get administration on board with the project, a task I think we fell short of.”
Cote doesn’t believe that the food pantry “has accomplished what it intended to do,” because “the food pantry has always suffered from a lack of funding,” but was heartened to hear that students utilized the Support-A-Bull Market at a much higher rate following COVID-19.
This is the case for all three of the food pantries that service the USF campuses; Tampa, Sarasota-Manatee and St. Petersburg all experienced a surge in demand starting in March and continuing over the summer due to COVID-19.
“In the weeks following Spring Break, more than 500 pounds of food were distributed,” said Joseph Contes, supervisor of the USF St. Petersburg pantry since its opening in 2019 and said. “This amount almost equals the total amount of food that was distributed to students during the Support-A-Bull Market’s first 5 months prior to COVID-19.”
Due to Tampa’s larger student body, the surge in its Feed-A-Bull Pantry was the most significant of all the campuses.
“During the summer there was a significant increase in utilization when comparing to Summer 2019,” said Katie Webster, dietitian and co-founder of the Tampa Feed-A-Bull Pantry, which opened in 2015.
“Visits were quadrupled comparing Summer 2019 to Summer 2020,” said Stacey Struhar, a dietitian at the Tampa Feed-A-Bull Pantry. “Between Spring 2020 and Summer 2020 semesters, the pantry provided almost 17,000 pounds of food and hygiene products to students.”
At the Sarasota-Manatee campus, the food pantry was still in the process of being created when COVID-19 struck, but was forced to hasten its creation due to a surge in demand from the student body.
“We started the pantry as we began to receive notice that some students are dealing with food and/or housing insecurity,” Allison Dinsmore, assistant director of student success at Sarasota-Manatee, said.
“COVID-19 required us to expedite the process in opening up our pantry to support our students,” said Bart Stucker, Orientation and Recreation Program Coordinator at Sarasota-Manatee. “To date, we have provided (approximately) 750 pounds of food to students. On average, students request anywhere from 10-15 pounds of food when they submit a request.”
Supervisors of all three pantries recognized the importance of food pantry accessibility during such challenging times.
“The pantry is an essential addition to the St. Pete campus,” Contes said. “The Support-A-Bull Market has helped many students. During last year’s operations we provided approximately 2,520 pounds of food to students and their families. We assisted over 125 students with food. We also provided over 200 pounds of dry and wet dog and cat food not calculated in the pounds of food provided to students.”
“Feed-A-Bull is an essential resource that serves our students struggling with food insecurity,” Webster said of the Tampa campus’ pantry. “As a supplemental food resource we are providing students with food they otherwise may not have access to.”
“I think so many of our students are trying to find ways to put themselves through college. Resources such as scholarships, grants, loans, part-time/full-time employment are all mediums that students use to pay their tuition and other college costs,” Stucker, of the Sarasota-Manatee campus, said. “We have found that many of our students have been furloughed from their jobs due to COVID, and hope that students will continue to utilize the pantry to help off-set some of their living expenses.”
They also emphasized that all three campuses are closed to in-person operations, but offering online ordering and socially distanced pick-up. These changes have “preserved anonymity” according to Webster, which may also account for the increase in student usage.
Courtesy of Support-A-Bull Market
