The Kirkwood food pantry, located on the third floor of Iowa Hall and open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on weekdays, is helping students manage the burden of high grocery prices by inviting students to shop the pantry once a week, or grab a snack or ready-to-eat meal every day to save money on food.
“Groceries are really expensive right now and it is something that a lot of people struggle with,” said Claudia Liberg, history major and work-study for the Kirkwood food pantry when asked how the pantry helps Kirkwood students. “Just to have that accessibility is super cool to be able to just kind of take that weight off someone’s shoulders, just a little bit. I think that’s a really cool initiative,” Liberg said.
But this initiative is doing more than just helping students save some extra cash. Part of its mission is to reduce food insecurity among college students and their families.
Jacob Zirkelbach, student resource and engagement supervisor and supervisor of the food pantry on Kirkwood’s main campus, said he knows how important it is for students to have access to food.
“If someone’s not able to feed themselves either during the day or when they get back home, then you’re probably not going to be in college too long, right?” said Zirkelbach. “You’re thinking about other things that are much more important, rather than, you know, a degree that might pay off in a few years, that’s kind of what the food pantry is designed for, is to meet that need so that students can stay enrolled.”
To meet these needs, the pantry receives most of its food from the Hawkeye Area Community Action Network (HACAP), a food reservoir operating in eastern Iowa, as well as other partners in the community such as Feed Iowa First and even the Kirkwood sustainability garden.
But despite the abundance and the benefits the pantry has to offer, the idea of using the food pantry may still feel daunting to some people. Zirkelbach said many first-time visitors of the pantry bring a friend with them, sometimes just to look, or to grab a snack or ready to eat meal.
“The food pantry is for everybody. We are not looking at income when a student walks through the door” said Zirkelbach. “We are not looking at how big their family is. We’re not asking them how desperate they are. We’re not asking any of those questions, we are asking for a K number and if they’re a student here at Kirkwood.”
Zirkelbach and other staff members at the food pantry encourage students to use the pantry regardless of their financial condition. It is a campus resource students pay for with their tuition and it is there for them.
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