Food

Hungry WildCat Food Pantry aims to expand food diversity

The Basic Needs center launched a survey April 5 to ask students what foods they want to see in the pantry

Jessica Miller, Food Editor // April 9, 2024

Entryway to the Hungry WildCat Food Pantry with a sign showcasing what items are available to students and faculty. Taken by Jessica Miller on April 8.

The Hungry WildCat Food Pantry sent out a mass email survey regarding cultural food preferences to all students and faculty on April 5 from the Basic Needs Center.

The Basic Needs Center aims to help Chico State students struggling with housing insecurity, financial crisis and food insecurity.

One way they provide food assistance is through the Hungry WildCat Food Pantry which is available to all Chico State students and staff.

The “Feeding Diversity” survey takes less than five minutes to complete and is completely anonymous.

“By stocking culturally relevant foods in the pantry, Chico State Basic Needs can help alleviate food insecurity and ensure that everyone has access to nutritious food options regardless of their cultural background,” Leah Slem, Basic Needs manager, said.

The Cross-Cultural Leadership Center and the Associated Students Committee for Social Justice and Equity collaborated with Basic Needs on the survey prior to it being sent out last week. They will continue to collect survey responses until April 12.

The AS Committee for Social Justice and Equity plans to help sponsor culturally relevant foods to purchase for the pantry.

This project is planned to launch before the end of the school year but will continue into fall 2024.

Jessica Miller can be reached at [email protected].

About the Contributor

Jessica Miller, News Editor

Jessica Miller is a fourth-year English studies major at Chico State with a minor in linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. This will be her second semester with The Orion and her first semester as the news editor. She previously worked as the food editor and loved getting to know the small businesses in downtown. After graduation, she plans to pursue a single-subject teaching credential in English and begin teaching at the high school level in California. She loves to write, read and work at the Student Learning Center on campus as a Lead Writing Mentor for the Writing Center..