Staff members of the Baker Center Food Pantry are continuing to keep up with demand after moving its location to the media hallway.
“The pantry was formed out of an idea and some leftover food from an incident on campus from a year ago,” Dustin Kilgour, executive director of Event Services at Ohio University, said. “So now with it constantly being utilized, how do we fill the shelves?”
Partnerships with student organizations are in the works, Kilgour said. The Board of Trustees also filled the shelves once.
“Just getting the word out that anyone can bring in food and put it on the shelves, and we’ll stock it and we’ll organize it and make sure it’s proper, is our first steps,” he said.
Even though traffic within the pantry has been high, Kilgour said he is opposed to tracking who is taking what from the pantry.
“Our stance to date has always been that we can fill the shelves with food and those people that are needy, if students or otherwise are getting that food,” he said. “Then, I think we’ve succeeded in what we are trying to accomplish.”
Another reason Kilgour is opposed to tracking who takes what from the pantry is because it would be difficult to “discern or ascertain the difference” between someone who is walking by and taking what they want than someone who has a true food insecurity, Kilgour said.
“I think the face of food insecurity is one you can’t tell,” he said. “That’s one reason why I don’t want to begin tracking.”
Darci Schroeder, a junior studying marketing and management thinks staff members should keep track of the pantry.
“I think they should keep track of what and how much comes in, but not who is taking what,” she said.
Emma Kokaska, a sophomore studying communication sciences and disorders, said it’s awful that students are taking food from the pantry that don’t need it and also believes it should be tracked.
“I understand that we are all college students, but (the pantry) is such a good cause,” she said.
Kilgour said he sees the success of the pantry everyday while in Baker Center.
“I can see when the shelves are full, and I do see people taking food from the shelves,” he said. “That’s all the success story I need, to watch it being utilized by people that actually need it.”
