What is “food insecurity” and how does it impact college campuses? Radha and new crew member Rasika Mukkamala welcome Stephanie Beecher and Amanda Dougherty to discuss food insecurity and how it impacts the University of Iowa and on-campus resources to help students, faculty, and staff meet their basic needs.—

Links for more information:
basicneeds.uiowa.edu/
imu.uiowa.edu/imu-services/food-pantry-iowa
imu.uiowa.edu/imu-services/clothing-closet

Find our previous episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud.

Radha Velamuri:

Hello everyone, and welcome back to From the Front Row. Food insecurity affects millions of people across the United States, including here in Iowa City. It’s a tough public health challenge, and we are lucky to have people who are working to solve it here on our campus. Today, we are joined by Steph Beecher, the University of Iowa’s basic needs coordinator, and Amanda Dougherty, executive director of the Food Pantry at Iowa.

We’re going to chat with them about the pantry and about food insecurity more broadly. My name is Radha Velamuri, and I’m co-hosting this episode with Raskia Mukkamala. If it’s your first time with us, welcome. We’re a student run podcast that talks about major issues in public health and how they’re relevant to anyone. Both in and outside of the field of public health. Welcome to the show, Steph and Amanda. So to start off, could you guys introduce yourselves? I know you guys both work for the Food Pantry, and I’ve actually had the pleasure of working with both of you. But I want to hear for our audience a little more about your roles and what you do at the Food Pantry on campus.

Stephanie Beecher:

Yeah, I can kick it off. So my name’s Steph Beecher. I’m the basic needs coordinator. So what that means is overseeing anything and everything basic needs. So clearly the Food Pantry and the Clothing Closet, which we can get into a little bit more later. And then just really being kind of front and center for basic needs as far as initiatives, getting funding, working with campus partners, really just to get the word out about basic needs.

Amanda Dougherty:

Yeah. And my name is Amanda Dougherty. I’m currently a senior here at the University of Iowa studying biomedical sciences, and I served as the executive director for the Food Pantry this past year. So I was in charge of leading our executive team, which was comprised of eight undergraduate and graduate students, as well as overseeing the day-to-day operations within the pantry.

Raskia Mukkamala:

Can you paint a picture of what food insecurity looks like on college campuses? How common is it? Who’s most affected by it? And especially at the University of Iowa, what it looks like?

Stephanie Beecher:

Yeah, I can jump on that. There’s a whole bunch of statistics we can really look at, but one is the Food Security Index score, which is by the USDA. And so on our campus, we collect data on, it’s called the NCHA data collection. So it’s National College of Health Assessment. So what we do is we look at who… What their index is and who can afford balanced meals. So we are looking at undergraduate, graduate, and professional staff when we’re talking about our data.

And so what we’re really looking at is how often do people report food insecurity? And for undergrads, seven and a half percent say that they often have food insecurity. So that up to seven days a week feel like they [inaudible 00:03:00] food insecurity quite often. So for grads, it’s 4.1%, and then for professionals they have 3.2%. Which, the percentages may seem [inaudible 00:03:09], but this index really captures pretty much seven days out of the week, I don’t know where my meal is going to come from.

So that’s one measure we look at. Another is just in general, in the past, I think the questions asked, in the past two weeks, were you unable to afford a meal? And nationwide, we’re looking at about 40% of students say that they don’t know where their next meal is going to come from. So you can look at a bunch of different measures, but really what is shedding light on is it’s common and the folks that it’s common with, it’s significantly common. Like throughout the seven days of the week.

Radha Velamuri:

Yeah, 40% is a very large number. Amanda, do you have anything you wanted… Yeah, Amanda, did you have anything you wanted to add on that?

Amanda Dougherty:

Yeah, so I think yes, obviously food insecurity is very prevalent on college campuses, but I think a lot of people don’t understand really the nature of it. Because you don’t readily see it unless you’re looking for it. And yeah, like we said, nationally, data shown 30% to 40% of students have self-reported being food insecure, but that number could be even higher for students that are choosing not to report that.

And it’s probably even much higher for marginalized communities as well. So I remember when I first learned about food insecurity, I kind of picture someone starving who hasn’t eaten in days maybe. But I think the truth is, it applies to anyone who’s not eating or does not have access to enough nutritious foods. So a lot of people just like don’t quite understand that whole definition. So like a student who’s eating ramen every night for dinner or skipping meals can also be considered food insecure. Which yeah, I don’t think is well understood by others as well.

Radha Velamuri:

Thanks for bringing that up. It really is a sensitive issue you bring up that some people just might not even report it. And that makes sense because first of all, you might not be aware that, especially as a college student, that you might be considered food insecure. Because a lot of people will think of people who are starving.

But yeah, if you are struggling to… If you eat ramen every night that is not healthy. And you can’t afford to eat healthier and support yourself, then you are considered food insecure. And a lot of college students might not think that they fall into that category and might be hesitant to use resources that are available to them. So I’m glad that both of you have taken the opportunity to come on this podcast. To come and share a little bit more with our audience, at least. Can you talk a little bit more about what services the Food Pantry provides and how students might be able to come and receive these services?

Stephanie Beecher:

Yes. Oh, go ahead, Amanda.

Amanda Dougherty:

Okay. I was just going to say, we are a free service for any student, staff or faculty member associated with the university. So if you’d like to use the pantry, all you have to do is come during our open hours, which are always posted on our website and social media. Bring your student ID card and we’ll have you swipe in, take a survey that I’ll ask you a couple questions about your food insecurity, household size, those sort of things. So we can collect all this data. And if it’s your first time at the pantry for the semester, and then you’re free to take what you need for the week.

So we provide a variety of basic goods, necessities you’d normally expect in a normal pantry like beans, pasta, canned goods, breakfast items. But we also try to include fresh produce. Like eggs, dairy, and culturally diverse foods as well. So that way our clients can have a well-balanced meal with foods that they’re accustomed to. And then also providing basic hygiene products like soap, toothpaste, pads, tampons, and those sort of things too.

Raskia Mukkamala:

Where do you get your donations from? Where are the supplies… Are they collected? Or is there anything people can do to help to donate?

Stephanie Beecher:

That’s a great question. So the pantry wouldn’t run without any of our partners. So we get food from HACAP, which is a food bank up in Cedar Rapids. They deliver kind of a pallet or two of food for us. That’s a significant chunk that we get our food donation from. And it always makes our job really interesting because we’re always like, “Oh, what did we get from HACAP this week?”

You never know what’s going to come in the food pantry. And that’s the same with Table to Table. So that’s a local organization that goes around to Hy-Vees and Quick-Stars and Targets to get their almost expired food and then divvy it out to the many pantries that we have in Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty.

So we get food from them. We’re lucky enough to have a budget where we can get food from Walmart that we’re ordering to kind of fill in some of the gaps. Because again, we don’t really know what we’re going to get. So we want to be able to fill, like Amanda was saying fill in food for culturally diverse needs, for dietary needs or just those staples. So it allows us to buy food through that. And then a local egg company that then… What would you call it? Egg…

Radha Velamuri:

Egg producer? [inaudible 00:07:57] producer?

Stephanie Beecher:

Yeah, egg producer. They produce eggs. They fill our fridge every week, one fridge full of eggs. And that’s where we get that. And then I’d say about 14% come from donations through Amazon wishlists, which we have. So people can go on and be like, “Oh, pantry needs these hygiene products. I’m going to order this.” So Amazon monetary donations and then food drives, kind of where that 14% makes up.

Raskia Mukkamala:

Yeah. That’s so awesome to hear that you guys are working with local partners and people in the Cedar Rapids area. I know you guys probably couldn’t do it without them, so it’s great to hear that it’s a community effort.

Stephanie Beecher:

Oh, totally, totally.

Raskia Mukkamala:

So Steph, you talked a little bit about the Clothing Closet. Would you be able to share a little bit more about the service and anything else about it?

Stephanie Beecher:

Yeah, so the Clothing Closet is available to any undergrad, grad, professional student, and we provide professional attire. So dresses, suits, blazers. Things that can become really expensive if you’re… Let’s say you’re applying for internship or you have a job interview and you need a blazer. That stuff is expensive. So we have different partners in the community we take donations from. And then we have a space in the Iowa House Hotel.

We have kind of like the pantry, we have different hours. People can stop by. Again, no questions asked if you qualify or not. You just qualify by coming into the space. And yeah, basically that’s kind of what the Clothing Closet is. We’re really looking at expanding efforts to winter coats. That’s something, a need that’s been coming up, especially with grad students, we’re noticing. And international students.

So a lot of us who are on the front lines of basic needs, we’re trying to keep a stash of coats in our offices so that we can equip students with coats when they come in and we notice, “Hey, you’re not wearing a coat. We have all these coats here. How can we help?” So it’s some in-person stuff. And then we’re also trying to expand our outreach with the Clothing Closet.

Raskia Mukkamala:

That’s super interesting. So I’m a first year MHA student, and part of our dress code includes professional dress when we have speakers or for internship interviews and things like that. And it is super expensive, especially having multiples. Or if you have two back to back events, having two or whatever. Even having one. So that’s a really nice resource for people just so that they know that it shouldn’t be a barrier to enter the field. And there’s resources out there for them to be supported in the community and still kind of achieve their goals.

Stephanie Beecher:

Yeah, totally. A 100%.

Radha Velamuri:

Actually, fun fact, my freshman year of undergrad, I actually used the Clothing Closet.

Stephanie Beecher:

You did?

Radha Velamuri:

Yeah, and it wasn’t because I really couldn’t afford to buy a new pair of dress clothes or whatever. It’s just, I had an interview and I didn’t have any transportation. When you are a freshman and you can’t access stores or anything like that, you shouldn’t feel inhibited from using this resource because you feel like you don’t deserve it. As someone who… I felt a little guilty, but the person who was at the Clothing Closet was literally like, “Hey, you don’t need to worry. You’re here because you have a reason for being here. And any reason is valid.”

So my reason was, I had a job interview the next day, I think. And I didn’t have dress pants. And I didn’t have any transportation because I was a freshman living in the dorms. I didn’t know how the buses worked. I didn’t know how any systems or anything worked yet. And I was like… I found out about this resource, and I was like, I’m just going to take advantage of it. And that’s what it’s there for. It’s there for people who…

Stephanie Beecher:

Exactly.

Radha Velamuri:

You shouldn’t feel like you don’t deserve it or anything like that. It’s there for everyone.

Stephanie Beecher:

Well, you bring up a great point of why people don’t seek out resources, and I think one, they don’t want to take… A big one is that they don’t want to take away resources from other people. Which I think is… Oh, it just like, no, you can use it too. We have plenty. We have plenty to go around. So reducing that kind of stigma around it. And also transportation. A lot of the thrift stores are on the east side of… I live on the east side of Iowa City, and really buses don’t run… It’s weird. They don’t run out that way. Also, taking a bus isn’t just as easy as like, “Oh, just take the bus.” There’s barriers to that as well. So I think, again, that’s where we want to expand our efforts to doing more outreach and going to people instead of having them have to rely on coming into the IMU to get their stuff.

Radha Velamuri:

So on a larger scale, there are other services besides food pantries that are available for people. Going back to food insecurity, you can talk more about the Clothing Closet and just clothing needs as well. But what are some other resources that people can use from your basic needs front? Switching gears a little bit.

Stephanie Beecher:

Yeah, a big one for University of Iowa students is the emergency fund that we have. So it’s kind of a small grant that you don’t have to pay back. I think up to $800. You just submit a form through the Dean of Students website. If you just Google Dean of Students Emergency Fund, it’ll pop right up. So if you’re finding yourself in a hardship, they just ask a couple questions, and that’s really it. So there’s no having to show proof of your bank account or anything like that. It’s just a few questions to ask, but the other one is SNAP. And Amanda, I’ll let you take on SNAP.

Amanda Dougherty:

Yeah, just in general of… There’s a lot of great resources in our community in Iowa City for those facing food insecurity. The largest being like CommUnity, Iowa City Compassion. They also have a food pantry and the Agape Cafe, they serve breakfast every Wednesday morning. But then also on our website, we have information for those who are looking to apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP.

So they changed the qualifications since COVID. But if you have an EFC from your FAFSA of zero, you may qualify. There’s sometimes a lot of hoops to jump through, but if you qualify for SNAP, you’ll get a dollar amount that you can spend per week. Well, they give it out per month. At grocery stores on food to help offset those grocery costs. So definitely a great resource to take advantage of if you qualify. And I think with our food pantry data, only 3% of our clients use it. So that’s something that we’ve really been trying to push is, there’s probably a lot more that qualify, but that just haven’t gotten through the hurdle of applying, meeting with DHS and getting through to get that service.

Raskia Mukkamala:

Would you say that it’s pretty easy to apply once you know you qualify? Or are there any resources on campus for people who think that they might qualify but just need help applying? Are there any resources for them?

Amanda Dougherty:

Yeah, so actually the application process from what I’ve heard, is quite long and difficult. There’s kind of a lot of hoops to jump through. There’s a whole website to go through. But then if they deem that you qualify, you have to meet with a DHS representative and go through your whole benefits and everything, which could be an access thing in and of itself.

But there is a hotline that’s put on by the Iowa Food Bank, and if you call this hotline, they will walk you through the whole application. And they actually prefer that if you are wanting to apply for SNAP, that you reach out to them because they know all the ins and outs of how to fill out this application to try and get your resources.

Raskia Mukkamala:

Yeah, you bring up a really good point about that access. If they’re required to meet with DHS. That is definitely, I think, something that if they call the hotline, they’ll probably get more information about. And it could be something that might deter them, but hopefully the hotline will be able to help them.

Radha Velamuri:

I actually talked to someone who worked for the hotline before and she said… And I asked her about this, about the whole access thing like, can anyone apply? And she said that even if you think you might not qualify, there is no harm in calling the hotline and applying. Because the worst that can happen is that you’ll get a no. They won’t pry into your personal information. They won’t do anything like that.

The worst thing that could happen is no, and the best thing that could happen is that you get support. So you bring up a really good point about access and just even seeing if you qualify. I think what the representative said was that it doesn’t hurt to try. Yeah, so we’ll start talking a little bit more about internal University of Iowa stuff. So we understand that you guys are currently undergoing a bunch of changes.

You guys just had a bunch of internal pantry operation changes and some larger scale things, like a whole new pantry is getting constructed with our new Iowa Memorial Union. So where do you see the future of the pantry going? What are your goals, aspirations, dreams, things like that?

Stephanie Beecher:

The dream question, I love this. What I’m seeing, and I’ve been at the university for 12 years now, and I’ve worked mainly in student wellness doing sexual health, alcohol outreach, just emphasis on wellbeing. And so when the pandemic hit… Well, the pantry was already established, the students already created, back 2016, created this amazing thing that has just taken off.

And so what the university did was like, “Hey, we need more support for these students.” And so I just came on pretty recently as the pandemic has been, as it happened, because that’s when our need really skyrocketed. And then the student exec committee really took things. I was just there to support them. They did… Oh, my God, they’re just amazing. And so what we’re able to demonstrate is that basic needs are on the rise or more people are seeking out resources.

I mean, combination of all kinds of things. Because even this last… From this time compared to last year at this time, we’re up like 300% in our clientele. How many people we’re seeing. It’s insane. So we have the data to prove that this is a need. We have the people coming through. So we have all this things saying, we need more support. And the university was like, “Okay, let’s hire four students.” So we have two managers and two operational people to help us run the pantry. So it’s not all on a student org. The student org is turning into more of an advisory role, which we’re still trying to sort out right now of how that looks. Because I think that’s so important because there’s people like you all that are doing the work that we want to hear from, to make sure we’re meeting our clients’ needs.

So where I see it going is just there’s more and more resources from the university being put towards basic needs which, as it should. And so with this new wellbeing center, once they start… The conversation hasn’t even begun with what do you want the space to look like? What do we want X, Y, and Z to look like? That’s where we’ll pull the students in, in the advisory board and be like, “Yeah, what do you guys think?”

So I just see it being bolstered across the board. We, in the west pantry, we’ve created more cupboard… So more of a cupboard space. We want to get into all the cultural centers, so we have a presence there. So expanding kind of our presence, what that looks like, is another kind of goal, lofty goal of ours.

Amanda Dougherty:

Yeah, and I think something to also just reiterate was like we were started by students and now our service has become so large and overwhelming that we needed more support. And with this new wellness center that’s going in, we’ll have the space hopefully that we need to operate to our full capacity. And with the university really pushing health and wellness, then obviously if you’re not eating the right foods every week you’re not going to be a successful student. So putting this whole wellness thing at the forefront first, I think will really help students in the long run as well.

Raskia Mukkamala:

Amanda, can you talk a little bit more about being a student and being involved on the executive board and what that role looks like and how you got involved in that? Because I’m curious to see how you kind of ended up in that position.

Amanda Dougherty:

Yeah. So my freshman year, I saw that there was a mass email looking for students to join the executive board of the Food Pantry, and I had done some food insecurity work in high school. So I was like, “Oh, perfect. This’ll be great.” So I joined and I was the outreach and events coordinator my first year. Which was great. Super excited to host all these events and do all this outreach.

And then the pandemic hit. And at that time, we were probably only seeing 20 clients a week. We were just really trying to expand our services and get our name out. And then, yeah, once COVID had hit, we had to completely redo how we did our pantry. And we got a brand new space to be more socially distanced and those sort of things. And with the demand, our services skyrocketed. And we had so many more people coming in, and it was really overwhelming as a student because our open hours, our deliveries, our distribution, everything was reliant on our student schedules.

So if something happened, we couldn’t be there, the pantry had to close. So we couldn’t get all the resources out that we needed to. So that was my freshman, sophomore year. Then I was the associate director my junior year, and then also just this past year, the executive director. So leading the team, helping them with their roles and coordinating all the day-to-day things that go on within the pantry.

Raskia Mukkamala:

That’s really awesome to hear that it’s kind of student led, because it means that there’s a lot of students out there who really are passionate about food insecurity and want to get involved. So it’s really inspiring to hear that you’ve not only done it one year, but you’ve done it throughout your college experience. So that leads into my next question, which is are there any food access related services that don’t yet exist, but that you wish existed?

Stephanie Beecher:

Good question.

Amanda Dougherty:

Oh, go ahead.

Stephanie Beecher:

No, go for it. I’m just reflecting on how good a question it is.

Amanda Dougherty:

Something we talked about when we were trying to figure out the whole restructuring our pantry with COVID was, is there any way we can do a delivery service? Which isn’t really feasible with the resources, and obviously us students cannot handle the capacity that would take. But having a delivery service I think would be super important for international students. Those who don’t have cars, especially if they need their culturally diverse foods or are accustomed to certain foods that you can’t just get at the local supermarket that might be closest to them. So that’s one thing I wish existed, but sadly does not on campus.

Stephanie Beecher:

Along with that, I’d say more mobile pantry. We did one class last semester. It was great. It was super successful, but the work that took to mobilize a pantry is quite significant. So I think just kind of looking at efficiency and how can we get out to the community on campus without burning up all the resources and our people power.

Radha Velamuri:

I mean, it’s good to think big. It’s good that you have these aspirations, even if they may not be feasible at the moment, but the fact that the ideas are there is the seed for future plans. And maybe with the wellness center, you’ll get the funding for a food pantry truck, like a mobile truck.

Stephanie Beecher:

Stop. You stop. That would be my dream. Is to get [inaudible 00:23:47]. Give me a truck. I’ll be like, set. Yes.

Radha Velamuri:

A truck. Just like you know how we have the… What is it? The Hawk truck or whatever that has… What am I thinking of? It has food. You can get flex meals there, but Food Pantry version, and every day it’s at a different location. I’m coming up with new things for the Food Pantry [inaudible 00:24:10].

Stephanie Beecher:

We love this.

Radha Velamuri:

Yeah, sign me up.

Stephanie Beecher:

Love it.

Radha Velamuri:

Just kidding.

Raskia Mukkamala:

It’s so hard because the campus is so big. I came from a smaller university and we had… I went to Creighton University in Omaha, and we had what was called the Creighton Cupboard, and it was in one of the residence halls. But the campus is a lot smaller. So the access, it’s a lot easier to walk to the campus, and most people lived closer to it, so that was a lot.

But I mean, just the campus is so large, there will always be people living on the opposite side. And especially in the winter, it’s kind of hard. It’s so cold to walk around and stuff. So yeah, the truck idea, I’m with you on that one. That sounds like a big aspiration, but hopefully someday we can make it happen.

Radha Velamuri:

Well, it’s like a unique thing for our campus. Because we are so big. A lot of state schools tend to be on the bigger side, and state schools tend to be where I think… I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but maybe that’s where some of the more food insecurity is happening because it is a public school. I’m not quite sure if that’s true, but [inaudible 00:25:22].

Stephanie Beecher:

Yeah, community colleges are probably the most food insecure when you look at higher ed across the country. But yeah, bigger universities. Yeah, it’s easy to… Again, navigating resources is such a huge skill to learn, and it’s just harder on a bigger campus.

Amanda Dougherty:

And I would say, especially if students are coming to a state school to try and save money on tuition that might already have put them at a disadvantage if they are in that food insecure position.

Radha Velamuri:

Yeah. So I have one more question for you guys. It is a question that we ask all of our guests. And you can answer it in whatever way that you would like. So it’s basically asking, what was one thing you thought you knew and were later wrong about? We just want our audience to know that it’s okay to mess up. And that everyone does it despite how successful or how impactful your job is. Everyone makes mistakes. So let’s share your failures.

Stephanie Beecher:

Like that. Oh, I’m just going to say mine right away. Right when I started and they assigned me to the Food Pantry to be like, “Steph, you’re going to help support the students. You’re going to just be in this role.” And not that I went in being like, I know more than the students. It wasn’t like that. But just how much they knew and how much that… I think once I met you all, like the exec committee and were like I have a lot to learn.

And so just what I did that whole year, [inaudible 00:26:47] after that was just be like, I’m immersing myself in the pantry. I’m going to do operations. I’m going to learn from… I’m going to shadow Amanda, Radha. I want to know. Because you guys have all this knowledge. So it wasn’t [inaudible 00:26:59] being like, “They don’t know anything.” I knew you guys knew stuff. I just didn’t know how much you knew. And now it’s like, that’s what I lead with. And being in higher education, you got to lead with, the students know a lot, and so what are you going to learn from them?

Amanda Dougherty:

Yeah, I would say related to food insecurity, and even just in general, it is okay to ask for help and to seek out resources when you need it. Especially for college students. Oftentimes, this is the first time in our life where we have a lot of freedom and independence to do things. So students, I know I, when I was a freshman and finally out of my parents’ house, I was so embarrassed to ask for help because I wanted to seem like I could handle the responsibilities now, becoming an adult.

But so I think there’s a lot of, obviously shame and stigma surrounding the use of pantries and resources in general. A lot of people, as we kind of touched on, don’t think they’re worthy of using them or shouldn’t be receiving the handouts. But we’re here for a reason. So it’s been a large part of our mission to break down those barriers so that we can reach the students and community members that we need. One way, we always tell our volunteers whenever they’re working, that they’re welcome to shop around the pantry at the end of their shift as well. So that there’s no divide between our clients, staff, and volunteers.

Radha Velamuri:

That’s a really good note to end on. Thank you so much for coming to the podcast. We had a really great time talking with you guys about food insecurity, and we just want everyone, we want our audience to know if you are on campus, and if you are a University of Iowa student, faculty or staff, you… Or any kind of student really, undergrad or grad. You have access to these resources, and I’m sure Steph or Amanda would be willing to talk to anyone or be reached out to, right?

Stephanie Beecher:

Yes.

Amanda Dougherty:

Yeah.

Radha Velamuri:

Yeah. So if you have questions, these guys are resources, and I hope that we can just keep working towards reducing food insecurity as much as we can on our campus.

Amanda Dougherty:

Yeah. Thanks for having us.

Stephanie Beecher:

Yeah, thank you so much.

Anya Morozov:

That’s it for our episode this week. Big thanks to Steph Beecher and Amanda Dougherty for joining us today. This episode was hosted and written by Raskia Mukkamala and Radha Velamuri. And edited and produced by Anya Morozov. You can learn more about the University of Iowa, College of Public Health on Facebook, and our podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and SoundCloud.

If you enjoyed this episode and would like to help support the podcast, please share it with your colleagues, friends, or anyone interested in public health. Have a suggestion for our team? You can reach us at CPH-gradambassador@uiowa.edu. This episode was brought to you by the University of Iowa, College of Public Health. Until next week, stay healthy, stay curious, and take care.