��ֱ����

Have you ever struggled to focus on work or school while hungry — only to feel a wave of clarity and energy after eating? Food isn’t just fuel; it’s essential for mental focus and academic success. But for many college students, access to nutritious food isn’t always guaranteed. 
 
In this episode of “The Yellow & Blue Podcast,” we’re exploring Jack’s Cupboard, South ��ֱ���� State University’s on-campus food pantry that provides students with food and essentials — no questions asked. We’ll hear from Kay Arnston, a student leader of Jack’s Cupboard, and Keri Pappas, a co-adviser, about how this resource is making a difference. Plus, we’ll take a behind-the-scenes look at how students can access food and how you can get involved through volunteering or donations.
 
Hunger shouldn’t stand in the way of success. Tune in to learn how Jack’s Cupboard is helping SDSU students stay focused, fueled and thriving.
 
Visit Jack’s Cupboard online to learn how you can volunteer or donate.
 
Transcript:
 
[Kay]
Yeah. I think the biggest thing for us is we want them to know they're welcome here. There is no judgment here. There is a “no-questions-asked” policy. You get what you need. And we're not going to question. And we're not going to judge it. So come and visit us and don't feel like you have to prove your need to us.
 
[Kay]
Right. We want students to come utilize the resource if they feel they need that extra assistance. We are a supplement to whatever their weekly routine is.
 
[Heidi]
Hello, Jackrabbits Nation! My name is Heidi Bushong, and this is “The Yellow & Blue Podcast.” Have you ever tried to focus on something, whether it be a work project, a class assignment or even simple tasks, while you're hungry? Then you like, stop and take a break. You eat, and suddenly you feel so much better and so much more focused.
 
[Heidi]
Food plays a very crucial role in the well-being and success of college students. It has a direct impact on their mental clarity and overall academic performance. Jack's Cupboard is the on-campus student food pantry at South ��ֱ���� State University. It provides students with free food and basic necessities. Here today to speak with me about the cupboard is Keri Pappas, co-adviser, and Kay Arnston, the student president of Jack's Cupboard.
 
[Heidi]
Thank you so much for being here today, ladies. I really appreciate it.
 
[Kay]
Yeah, of course. I'm really happy to be here.
 
[Heidi]
Awesome. So, for people who may not know what Jack's Cupboard is, how would you describe it to them?
 
[Kay]
OK, so we were like, you did a pretty good example of it. Yeah. So, we're a student-led on-campus food pantry. Our goal is to eliminate food insecurity of students on this campus. The idea is it's Jacks feeding Jacks or students feeding students. So, it's our student org who tries to run most of the day-to-day operations with their fantastic help of our advisers and the local community for donations.
 
[Heidi]
Keri, what would you say that Jack's Cupboard is like? I know this is a really passionate project of yours.
 
[Keri]
Yeah, Jack's Cupboard is truly, there's nothing like it, unfortunately, that I can give you an example. There is no other food pantry that’s set up like Jack's Cupboard. It's set up to be a shopping experience for people coming in. We want to provide that dignity of students, being able to pick the food they want, that you're not driving up and having a box thrown into your car with like prepacked things that you don't get to select.
 
[Keri]
You don't have a say and things like that. So, we're set up to be a shopping experience. It is in a great location on campus. We have like big windows. We try to have fun, like foods in there, and really make it as dignifying of an experience as possible because there's a lot of shame and stigma surrounding receiving assistance in the Midwest, especially around food.
 
[Keri]
So, we're trying to really alleviate that and make sure that our students feel comfortable coming into the space, which makes it truly that there's nothing else like it. I've looked at other college food pantries across the U.S. to see like what we're doing in comparison. I've looked at food pantries locally, and truly, there's no other place like Jack's Cupboard.
 
[Heidi]
That's great to hear, and that it's here on this campus for students to use and for people who live in their households as well. So, let's talk a little bit about that. Where is it and who does this serve? Because I don't think people realize that this isn't just like maybe necessarily a typical student who lives on campus using this.
 
[Kay]
Yeah, absolutely. So, we are located on campus. So especially for our students on campus or students who struggle with transportation, we are locally, right here. We are located in Ben Reifel, so we're connected right off of Ben Reifel Hall, kind of right in between where there's two sides or wings of the building separate. We are here to serve any student of South ��ֱ���� State, undergraduates and grad students.
 
[Kay]
We serve all, and we're welcoming of all. Whether you're on campus or off, everyone struggles with food and even not just struggling with access to food but accessing a well-rounded and healthy diet. We've been really proud of the work we're doing this year of getting more produce and more well-rounded foods. So even if we're just students or just struggling to get a healthy diet or a well-rounded diet, we are here just to aid in their path to that.
 
[Heidi]
That's a great point to make because like, having access to like, cold foods or fresh foods may be really hard for people who are seeking this kind of assistance.
 
[Keri]
Yes. And we try to make sure that the foods that are in there are accessible. You know, we recognize that not everyone has things like Tupperware or can openers. So, we try to have, you know, cans that have pull tabs when we can, just like simple things like that. We try to make sure we have foods that can be cooked in a microwave, foods that can be cooked on a stove, foods that you can eat, like without warming up.
 
[Keri]
So, we always have like peanut butter and jelly, you know, things that can be eaten cold. So, we're trying to make sure that we're accessible for students who don't necessarily have full kitchen spaces, areas to prepare food as much. That we've got a little bit of everything. And especially like Kay mentioned, the work we're doing, trying to get fresh produce and things like that, or even we got a really cool opportunity to partner with, I think, the South ��ֱ���� like Dairy Association or something like that.
 
[Keri]
So, we can have some extra dairy products in there once a month now. So, things like yogurts and things like that that are really just humanizing that when students get to eat like their peers. I feel like it's dignifying. It's humanizing.
 
[Heidi]
Let's talk about the people that it serves. I know you said that any undergraduate, graduate student at SDSU is eligible to come to Jack's Cupboard. Your MyJacksCard will help you gain access to that. But a lot of people have people who live with them. So, this food is going to them as well.
 
[Heidi]
Let's talk about who this serves. Like, what kind of reach does Jack's Cupboard have?
 
[Keri]
We collect some basic household demographic information now, which is something that Jack's Cupboard previously did not do. That's part of our collaboration with Feeding South ��ֱ���� that we have to collect just some very basic demographic information. But it's been really exciting for us to start to measure that impact in a more tangible way. So, when a student comes to Jack's Cupboard, we ask how many individuals live in their house, how many people will be like eating this food.
 
[Keri]
And then we ask for the age breakdown of that. So how many people are under the age of 17? How many people are between the ages of 18 to 69 or 59? How many people are above 60? We know that on average, the number of students who are physically coming into Jack's Cupboard is between 130 to 180 per week.
 
[Keri]
So those are the students actually coming in from that. We in February of this year saw that we served right around 1,200 people. Wow. With about roughly 10 a week being children. So, there is it's definitely, like a goosebump kind of number.
 
[Heidi]
I've got them right now. I know we talk about this a lot. Whenever I see you, Keri, we always are talking about Jack's Cupboard. Kay, I know you said you as president, obviously you have a lot of involvement with this, and you said you volunteered all your freshman year. What is it like when you see children coming to campus into Jack's Cupboard and using this resource?
 
[Kay]
It was one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had, and it was really what brought me to apply for the student team after my freshman year of volunteering. There was. It was such a rewarding experience seeing both my peers and their households come in to use this as a resource. It was a really. I think the humanizing is a great way to describe it, of having the experience, to get to see these kids come in and see, oh my goodness, I saw that in the store, but I couldn't get that before and now they can.
 
[Kay]
And it was such a moment of like, I'm helping in that process, and I get to help make that experience for that child. And it is truly like an experience like nothing else. And even experiences like, I know we try to put an emphasis of having something fun, whether it's candy or cake or etc. I remember an experience that stood out to me when I was volunteering, was we had a cake and chocolate frosting, when and someone came in and was like, oh my goodness, it's my kid's birthday this week.
 
[Kay]
And I didn't know if I was gonna be able to get them a cake this year. And now I can. And I genuinely needed to, like, take a second, because it was just such an impactful moment for me and knowing like, my work is helping not just my peers, but also their households.
 
[Heidi]
Everyone loves when they get a chance to eat something that's their favorite. And it sounds like you guys work really hard to give them that.
 
[Kay]
We really try. That's why we try to do a rotation of items, right? We are a donation-based organization, so we have our staples, and it's not like we can always provide all the things we'd love to, but that's why we try really hard to work with community and campus members as well as like, Feeding South ��ֱ���� to try to get some really cool items for the people who utilize our cupboard.
 
[Kay]
Because yes, fresh produce and your basic essentials are an important part of everybody's life. But sometimes those fun things can be just as important for our mental health as our physical health.
 
[Heidi]
So absolutely, I know I find food really comforting, and I'm sure other people feel the same, so it's good to know that those things are available at Jack's Cupboard. You guys have mentioned Feeding South ��ֱ���� a few times. Maybe let's talk about, how this food is sourced, because there's a lot of players involved in this.
 
[Keri]
I can take the first stab at that, and please add in, Kay. So as of last February, I believe, so February of 2024, we became an official affiliate to Feeding South ��ֱ����. So, because we are not a standalone nonprofit, we had to be sponsored by another organization who's combating food insecurity. Our sponsorship is through the Brookings County Food Pantry.
 
[Keri]
So, they help maintain like our relationship with Feeding South ��ֱ����, essentially. And we are incredibly grateful for that partnership. Without their understanding, without their help, we would not be able to have the impact that we have. But because they sponsor us, we get to order food from Feeding South ��ֱ����, which allows us to purchase bulk products at discounted rates.
 
[Keri]
So, some of our staple items thinking like rice, some of our canned fruits, canned tuna, shelf-stable milk, things like that we get from Feeding South ��ֱ���� at deeply discounted rates that make it so possible for us to do what we're doing. I think the last time that I looked at the Feeding South ��ֱ���� website, we've ordered, gosh, like 100,000 pounds of food from them in about a year.
 
[Keri]
So that's truly like how much we're going through. To have that partnership in place means so, so much to us. And it helps us like tap into a statewide network of food resources. So, we're just incredibly lucky. On the campus side, though, having that partnership requires a ton of collaboration and coordination, all the way to Facilities and Services has become our best friends that.
 
[Kay]
We shout out.
 
[Keri]
Yeah, exactly.
 
[Kay]
Like Dwight, I.
 
[Keri]
We could not feed people without Dwight, every week he does. I don't think he realizes what he's doing for us. Because we get the food in on pallets that we're ordering, literal pallets of food each week. Sometimes I think the biggest Feeding South ��ֱ���� order we ever had was four pallets of food.
 
[Heidi]
Wow.
 
[Keri]
For one week. And I think we had some, like extra fun stuff on there for like a Thanksgiving Day distribution, but still four pallets of food. So, we have to unload that at a warehouse that has a dock, so it gets unloaded at our Facilities and Services warehouse, and then they have a general services individual, like bring it over to us.
 
[Keri]
So, a ton of collaboration, coordination. Every Thursday we're on the phone with them figuring out when the pallets got here, when we're going to get it over to Jack's Cupboard. And then our student team and some volunteers on campus play a key role in unloading that pallet, getting things put away. Because we're able to order things like beef and the fresh produce and sometimes frozen foods.
 
[Keri]
So, we have to act pretty quickly, realistically, that Thursdays are a hectic day for Jack's Cupboard and a lot of ways restocking.
 
[Kay]
Yeah. Our team message group chat is crazy on Thursdays of, like, “Alright, pallets coming in this time. Who's available?” and I that's why I'm really thankful that we've not only got the amazing student team but had the chance to expand for this next year. It's a lot of work, and especially when you have four pallets, they're not tiny and they're heavy and they're exhausting, but I think a lot of our team bonding happens in those moments of like, who can go do it and who's carrying food with you.
 
[Kay]
Especially when it's really cold. And then making the cardboard runs is more fun. Yes. So, and then we also have like our facilities students on our team who kind of lead a lot of that charge. So, they do a lot of work for us. And we're really appreciative of them. They also will go and pick up Walmart orders on Mondays as of right now.
 
[Kay]
And they Walmart is a great supplement for us to pick up some more of those maybe fun items if we couldn't get them from Feeding South ��ֱ����, because they are more of, whatever's available, available. So, we can use Walmart to supplement those orders. Otherwise, we rely on our, like, community outreach, humans on our board to do a lot of our kind of fundraising and local grassroots donations and food drives and that's where we also kind of tend to see some of maybe those more fun or unique items, or even just more of those essentials that we need students to have.
 
[Heidi]
Obviously, you guys, rely on donations so much. Funds where you can go and take that procurement card and go do that grocery store pickup or, donation drives. I know, like different departments and colleges on campus, like every month, they try to have a drive or there are boxes throughout, places on campus where people can stick their food, to donate.
 
[Heidi]
A couple months ago, I had an experience and I, when I talked to Keri about it, she was like, I don't think anyone in our area organized this, but it's just really cool to see how many people think of Jack's Cupboard, to organize drives. But I had, like, a grocery sack stuck on my front door, last fall, and it was like, if you fill this up and stick it out between 9 -11 a.m. on this Saturday, we will come and pick it up.
 
[Heidi]
And I had so much stuff it was overloaded putting it out. And then, yeah, next thing I knew it was gone. And it's just such an easy ... I didn't even have to leave my house to donate. And another way, you don't even have to leave your house to donate is by donating online. And I'm sure, that's a good way, people can maximize their donation as well.
 
[Heidi]
Let's talk about that. How can people help? How can people donate to Jack's Cupboard?
 
[Kay]
Yeah, I guess building off of actually that program you said, I believe that was actually a LeadState program. Oh. There you go. So that was a program that was done similarly this fall as well. So, but yes, we are so thankful for the campus partners that like. I was community outreach personnel like this last year.
 
[Kay]
And my goodness, they made my job easy some days because people want to help and they're so excited to help because they kind of see us as such a vital resource for our students. So, they do my job a lot of times, they just ask for some help with dropping stuff off. As for kind of how they can help, can or continue to help.
 
[Kay]
Yes. If you go on to our website, there is a monetary donation option that you can donate directly. Otherwise, we are always welcome to take food, right? We're a food resource. So, our open hours are also listed, but they are on Tuesday, Wednesdays, 3-6 p.m. And if there is anything like you know what, I'm just stocking up on all this stuff and I really am not going to use it.
 
[Kay]
I bet someone on our campus will. So, if you stop by during. Yeah, I know, like and like my family's like a Costco family. So, like, we will have some bulk extras, and so like working to just drop those off even in person during those times, we will always have volunteers there to help you unload and to gather those donations.
 
[Kay]
Otherwise, on our website is listed, an email. It's our Jack’s Cupboard email. So, if you ever cannot make it during that timeframe, send us an email and someone will get back to you, and we'll set up a time that you can drop that stuff off, and we'll have a student team leader there to help with that process.
 
[Keri]
And if anyone ever wants to organize a drive or something like that, like a community organization wants to, or someone like at your job wants to organize within your employer, definitely reach out to that email that our student team is more than happy to assist with that in terms of, you know, do you need boxes when you need us to pick things up?
 
[Keri]
Do you need ideas for what to donate? Can we help you with a theme and a fun poster? Whatever we can do to support those efforts, we're definitely available for that. Or our student team is. I shouldn't speak for you all.
 
[Kay]
Oh, no, we absolutely are. We get really excited when we don't have to do all the legwork or when we have or just have someone who's really excited about doing a project but don't know where to start. That's where. That's what we're here for. We know what our cupboard needs. We have a least decent idea of what our students need.
 
[Kay]
We are here as that resource, so if there's anyone interested, we are always welcome to fielding those requests. And even if it's not a food drive, it's just looking for ways to get involved. Carrie mentioned earlier, we have a lot of student volunteers that we couldn't run the cupboard without on the weekly basis. Our student volunteers carry our open hours on those Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but we're also up open those volunteer hours for our Walmart, pickup times to help unpack.
 
[Kay]
And those unpacking times are Feeding South ��ֱ���� orders on Thursday. And so, there's also other ways that we can have people help us, besides just donations. So, if you're in a place that you maybe can't afford or be willing to give and donate food but still want to help with a really cool resource, reach out and I guarantee you we can find something for you to do.
 
[Heidi]
That is a really great point Kay, because I was on your guys' website the other day, and I saw there's a SignUp Genius, and you can sign up almost literally every day of the week, excluding weekends, to volunteer at Jack's Cupboard. It's not just distributing food and manning the cupboard, but supplying it, you know, filling it up as well.
 
[Heidi]
It doesn't just appear. It takes a lot of work.
 
[Keri]
And we we're really proud of the fact that during the academic year, we're staffed by students, that we want to make sure students feel comfortable coming to the Jack's Cupboard. We felt like that was one of the most ideal things we could do is to have students be the ones kind of helping in that position. You know, no one wants to walk into the cupboard.
 
[Keri]
And their chemistry professor that they just took an exam with is the one checking them out. Or that might make them a little bit uncomfortable. So, we are staffed by students during the academic year, but during the summer, we really rely on faculty and staff at SDSU to help fill those roles. Because we are open during the summer, we're open during spring break, we're open during winter break that people are still here.
 
[Keri]
People still need those food resources. So, we are always looking for additional faculty and staff here to help fill those volunteer roles during those break periods when our students need a break too, that our student team gets their workout during the academic year and doing all their additional programming. So yeah, we're always looking for additional faculty and staff who potentially have a passion, too.
 
[Heidi]
That's great to know. As a person who likes to donate, likes to see Jack's Cupboard succeed, I'm always curious about what you need or what people should donate or what types of things that you guys look for. For donations. What would you tell people to donate? Because it's a pretty broad range of things.
 
[Kay]
Yeah, I would say our website. It's a great place to start. It has a pretty comprehensive list of just about anything you can think of. The one thing that we usually really love to see coming in is those personal hygiene items. Those are sometimes a little bit harder for us to source. So especially if you have bulk of those or extra of those laying around, we always are really excited to see those come into the cupboard.
 
[Kay]
We are a food pantry, but we are also just kind of a wellness pantry in that regard of we love to stock those personal hygiene items, to make sure that our students also have access to those. We also always love to see bread. We are frozen foods. We are now accepting because we have an expanded freezer.
 
[Kay]
Otherwise, those nonperishable items are always a really great go-to, otherwise any of those kinds of fun things. We talked about cake earlier, right? Any of those fun things, those muffin mix, those brownies mix that we all kind of take for granted sitting in our in our pantries, those can be really fun for students. I've seen a lot of students grab them and talk about how exciting it will be to cook them in the dorms or have some like type of like fun, exciting night where they can bond with their peers over those types of meals.
 
[Kay]
So, it's fun to get those in as well.
 
[Keri]
I will say my two rules of thumb anytime someone wants to ask me what to donate is donate what you eat. Donate what you use. Think about like what you're eating, using on a daily basis. And then also if you touch it like during a day, like every single day, our students need it. So, your shampoo, your deodorant, your salt and pepper, your just like basic stuff like that, like donate what you would eat and then donate what you touch every single day.
 
[Keri]
Because those are things that we desperately need.
 
[Heidi]
That's a great point. Salt and pepper. I've never thought about that. You know, like I don't cook a bag of corn without putting salt and pepper on it. It just isn't the same. And you want them to experience that, too?
 
[Keri]
Yeah. Especially getting foods that are typically found in a food pantry. You know, thinking of having those staples. We have rice, we have beans. We have pasta. A lot of those foods can be a little bland sometimes.
 
[Heidi]
We need we need a spice of life in here.
 
[Keri]
Do we do we do, having condiments, having spices, stuff like that is super, super helpful. Our students go crazy for it. We're really lucky right now. We do have some, like, condiment packets in Jack's cupboard. Through a partnership with Sodexo. So, they've been phenomenal in terms of partnering with us, Sodexo, as a corporation and as well as like our on-campus Sodexo representative specifically are really committed to combating food insecurity, that it's part of their nationwide platform.
 
[Keri]
But the people that we work with here on campus really have taken it to heart and are trying to make sure that we get some of those, like condiment packets and things like that, that, you know, they might have some extra, but it makes a big difference. But there is there's still always room for more check.
 
[Kay]
Absolutely. I don't know about you, I love sauce. I can't eat a meal without a sauce. So, when we start getting sauces and stuff in there, it always made me a little bit happier because I was like, oh yeah. So now I can make something with this. So yes, those sauces make a big difference. And they just kind of right where you humanize that food like I can of green beans is great, but when you can at least put some salt and pepper or some butter on it right then and at least takes it a little bit more of a, takes it up a level.
 
[Keri]
Yeah. It does.
 
[Heidi]
Absolutely. One thing I also didn't really think about until going to Jack's Cupboard and seeing how things work is how important, like, individual things are, like, individual packets. Like when I donated a box of ramen, I don't know why, but I just kind of assumed that one student would get the box of ramen. But you guys break down stuff as much as you can to share the love.
 
[Heidi]
What are some things, like big bulk items that you can think of that would really like maximize people's donation? I know, Keri, you said Tide Pods or fruit snacks, things like that.
 
[Kay]
Granola bars is another one we see super frequently. Those like, kind of grab-and-go breakfast items, like those applesauce packets. Anything that's kind of like that, grab and go snack thing is always really popular. Especially we're students, right? We always love to sit down and cook a meal, but that's not always achievable for us.
 
[Kay]
So, some grab-and-go items I would say is always super beneficial for our students. Otherwise, we always love to see. Ramen is a staple of every college student’s diet. So yes, every anytime you kind of donate something otherwise, like feminine hygiene products is another one we commonly break down. So, anything that kind of comes bulk, we do try to kind of condense it down to single package items just so we can have as many people kind of get benefited by that resource as possible.
 
[Heidi]
You mentioned Sodexo earlier, and I feel like they are kind of a big part in, some other resources that you guys are able to offer through Jack's Cupboard, the Food Recovery Network, and Swipe Out Hunger. Let's talk about those.
 
[Kay]
Yeah, it's been an amazing partnership with Sodexo. I've loved getting to know some of even their new staff this year, so it's been really great. Swipe Out Hunger is a really great program that they now are pretty much entirely funding. So, we are so appreciative. Historically, we've had students donate blocks specifically toward the end of semesters, and we've stemmed away from that.
 
[Kay]
And Sodexo has really stepped in in a really big way. And we are so thankful because now, not only are we a resource at the very end of semesters. We can be a resource all year. And that has been a huge asset to us, is so students can get that on a rolling basis. They are approved every week if that, if they need that resource.
 
[Kay]
So, Sodexo has been huge for us there, and we are so thankful. Food Recovery Network has been another really great resource. The person who actually kind of started that is also a member of or a member of our student team. So that's been a really fun collaboration for us. So, what that if people don't know what that is, Sodexo will package their leftovers, and they will freeze them for us, and then we will get those frozen meals and we'll be able to give them away for free, to our students.
 
[Kay]
So, it's been really great. Once again, that grab-and-go option of we can throw it in a microwave, but have a really well-rounded meal that we can give to students, and it tastes really good. So that has been a really fun program for us to partner on with them as well.
 
[Heidi]
Great resources as well. I know that those are two ways that Jack's Cupboard has grown over the years. What's next?
 
[Kay]
I got a lot of big dreams. So yeah, I've just recently been like, I'm the rising president of Jack's Cupboard, so and like, I've kind of mentioned, our student team is growing a lot. This is really only the second and third year that we have a really established student team. So, we're really young and we have a lot of big dreams of where we want to take it.
 
[Kay]
I'm really excited to do more opportunities like this get so the campus and community can get to know us as people and as a resource a little bit more. So, I want to see us being out and present and doing more food drives, more programing, more events. One of the things we actually have coming up is a poverty simulator.
 
[Kay]
Oh, yeah. Which is a cause, it's super special to our hearts. Like you mentioned in your kind of snippet at the beginning, experiencing poverty and food insecurity not only is a disturbance in and of itself and disturbs every aspect of your life. So, we are running this event so other student leaders on campus can understand when they are leading their peers in whatever role they have, what that experience can be like for someone who is experiencing financial hardships.
 
[Kay]
So that is something that we are currently working on, and we are really excited, and looking still for some staff volunteers. And so, for some students who are excited to experience it as well. So, we are super excited to do more events like that where we can educate kind of what it is like to experience that so people can have more empathy and sympathy, but also to eliminate the stigma.
 
[Kay]
Right? We as students, many of us are all going through similar issues, and if we don't talk about them, people think they're isolated in those. So, the more we can be transparent and the more we can provide education on what it is realistically like for many people's lives, the more we can kind of provide a more supportive campus for everyone on it.
 
[Heidi]
That's an excellent point, Kay. I don't know if it's a Midwest thing or if it's just, you know, college student thing, but I know you guys say that this resource is underutilized because people think someone else needs it more than I do. What would you tell those people?
 
[Kay]
I remember even as a volunteer, people would come in and they would say frequently of like, oh, well, I just never came in before because I didn't think I was, I needed it enough or I didn't meet the threshold that they had in their mind of what was considered a high enough need. And I'd really challenge that notion.
 
[Kay]
We are a resource for everybody on campus. Like I said, we are a resource for people who are just struggling to even meet, like a well-rounded diet. So, it is not just that you physically cannot put food on the table. We are here just to help you even fill in the gaps of that well-rounded plate.
 
[Kay]
Come and visit us if you are even thinking about like, oh well, it would be kind of nice to have. Fantastic. We would love to see you. We'd love to meet with you. We'd love to learn what you were looking for and what you need as an asset in your life. We are a campus resource, so don't ever feel like you have to meet some threshold, or you have to be hungry enough or desperate enough.
 
[Kay]
That's not what we're here for. We are here to aid in every aspect, wherever we can be helpful.
 
[Keri]
And we will always get more food that I. The narrative that I've been telling more and more people lately is we're open on Tuesday and Wednesday. So, if you are worried that someone needs it more than you, come at the end of the day on Wednesday because then you're taking what no one else needed for that week, what no one else wanted for that week.
 
[Keri]
So come supplement your grocery budget with us. Use the resources that you need in order to be successful here. That you are here to be a student. That's your full-time job. That a lot of people are also maintaining other full-time jobs, for sure, and trying to make that happen. And at SDSU, the university has committed to this being a resource that is incredibly valuable to us because we know that students need this, students deserve to have the opportunity to be a student.
 
[Keri]
They deserve that right to focus on their studies. They deserve to get that “A” in a class and work five less hours a week. So, we have students like definitely, definitely use it, use it to supplement. You may not be able to get everything there every week, but use it to supplement at least.
 
[Heidi]
Great to see the support. So thankful that we have Jack’s Cupboard on our campus. Now let's go take a look at Jack's Cupboard to see what the process for collecting food is like. We are here at Jack's Cupboard on South ��ֱ���� State University campus in Ben Reifel Hall. Kay is here to walk us through what the process of collecting food is like.
 
[Heidi]
Kay, what can students first expect when they come? I know you said sometimes you may have to wait a little bit.
 
[Kay]
Yeah. So especially right when we open up, that 3 p.m. mark, there is usually going to be a line forming outside. We have a lot of students who really need us as a resource. So, you might have to wait a little bit once that initial hour kind of dies down. You don't typically see a line outside, and then you'll just be able to walk on in.
 
[Kay]
You will always be able to know when we're open, because we will always have that sign out there indicating that Jack's Cupboard is open and ready to serve. But when you kind of get here, the first thing you'll do, we've started a reusable bag program. So, if you have that with you, bring your bag and your card and you can start that way.
 
[Kay]
Otherwise, if you forgot or didn't, don't have one, you can always grab a plastic bag. We will always have plastic bags on hand. Just to make sure that students can always transport food when they need it. Otherwise, then you can kind of have the free will to shop around. We kind of recommend kind of walking around in a circle.
 
[Kay]
So, we start off with a lot of our breakfast items. So, we have some fruit, some breakfast items so we can do grab and go breakfast for college students because we're busy, don't always have time to prep a breakfast. Then we walk over here and we still kind of have some more of those fun items. We talked about pancake mix, peanut butter, syrup and some shelf-stable milk for people to use.
 
[Kay]
Then we have a lot of our soups. We've been really excited to have some potatoes in here as well. It's been really exciting to have some more of that produce so people can utilize that. Otherwise, we have a vegetable kind of aisle of a lot of our canned vegetables that people can make for kind of a healthy, well-rounded meal.
 
[Kay]
Otherwise, we try to keep a rotation of stuffings, carbs, mashed potatoes, etc. so we kind of rotate through some different options so people can always have some good complex carbs with their meal. We talked about ramen, right? Ramen is always a staple in the college diet, so we always have a shelf of ramen for students first needs to come pick up when they need it.
 
[Kay]
We always try to keep onions on hand, right? You don't realize how many things you want to put onions in until you start cooking and don't have any, so we try to keep onions on hand to always make that meal a little bit more flavorful. We always try to keep canned chicken or canned tuna in here as well for that extra source of protein for our students, then we kind of move on.
 
[Kay]
We have a lot of our rice, tortillas. We have brought up their breads, always a hot commodity here. So, you'll notice we do have limits on some of our foods. Those are things that students really need. Or we sometimes have a hard time actually sourcing. So those are kind of the items that we really love to see come into our cupboard.
 
[Kay]
So, rice, bread, tortillas, etc. Otherwise, the aisle of mac and cheese. We will have enough mac and cheese for an army to come in here. So please come get some mac and cheese. That's always our favorite. Some sauce packets and some condiments to kind of make that meal feel like a meal and feel well-rounded. Otherwise, this is kind of our fun miscellaneous.
 
[Kay]
This is kind of where we get a lot of our, like, random, fun stuff that people can have a unique shopping trip every week because this will rotate every week, but we'll always have some personal hygiene items, feminine hygiene items. We've been really excited. We were working with Students’ Association to get some menstrual cups in here.
 
[Kay]
So, they're donated and a really cool federal program. So that's been really exciting for us. Otherwise, we move on into our fridge where we see a lot of our we always try to keep some water, some fun drinks. We get a lot of donations now from Kwik Star so we can get some donuts, some bread, fresh produce and kind of fresh sandwiches, that they have donated to us that they no longer want or need.
 
[Kay]
Then we come over to our freezer. We love our partnership at Food Recovery Network. They always have frozen meals for us that our students can take and heat up. Otherwise, we get a rotating of breads and muffins and breakfast items. Always cheese and butter. And then we have our really hot commodity items, which is like our ground turkey, ground proteins, etc. and then once you've kind of shopped around, you'd bring your bag to the front where we have our wonderful Sloane here, who's actually one of our co-advisers.
 
[Kay]
So, I'd bring it, I'd set myself up on the scale so we can get an idea on how much it weighs. If I had my card, I'd get a fun little bunny to put on my card, and then I would be tapping my student ID, just to register that. As a student, I can use the resource, that I can get my food and head out on out.
 
[Heidi]
So, when you're physically going to picking out food and I can see what all is here, what can I take?
 
[Kay]
Yeah. So, anything is open to you. We always ask, like, respect, like if we have posted signs with limits of things, respect those limits just because that's trying to make sure that anyone who needs to use us in the next Tuesday or Wednesday from 3-6 p.m. has access to those resources, but otherwise, anything else is fair game.
 
[Heidi]
So, like, is there a limit to how many items like say, I love Cheerios, and I want like two things of Cheerios? Does that count toward a limit of items?
 
[Kay]
No, so there's no limit on items. We don't put a limit on the number of items or a weight to limit. There's nothing like that. Respect the individual limits. And we always say don't take more than what you eat in a week. We are open every week, so don't take anything more than you'd need to last yourself a week. We don't.
 
[Kay]
Our goal is to eliminate food waste, so don't just add to that.
 
[Heidi]
So, when you go to weigh your food, what does that count toward?
 
[Kay]
Yeah. So that's honestly for our numbers. We just wanted to get an idea of how much food is coming in and out of the cupboard. It's just a metric so that we can better understand the impact we're having on our students. So, it's just kind of go into our numbers so we can get in, get an idea of the services we're providing.
 
[Heidi]
Perfect. So, when I go to check out and they're weighing my bag, say I'm a graduate student on campus and I'm married and I have a son. Do I share that information with the person working?
 
[Kay]
Yeah. So, the volunteer will kind of go through those questions with you. After you tap your student ID, either will ask how many people are in your household. So, in your case it would be three. And then in that they'll ask you the age ranges if it is under 17 or a child, and then they'll have that 18 to 59 and then the 60-plus.
 
[Kay]
And so, you'll be able to give that us that information. We use that, because we're, we get resources from Feeding South ��ֱ����, and they would love to track our household demographics and who we are serving so we can get an idea of just right, the true impact we're having, not just on our peers and our students, but just the far-reaching impacts we have on the community.
 
[Heidi]
Perfect. I know you guys said that you're open Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the afternoons. And how does it work? Is it first come, first serve?
 
[Kay]
Yes. So that's kind of why I mentioned that there's a lot of times a line we will restock before the shift starts every day. But especially that Tuesday at 3 p.m., we'll probably be the most stocked you see our cupboard. So especially on Tuesday at 3 p.m., there will usually be a decent amount of people waiting. But yes, it's first come, first serve.
 
[Kay]
But we are. Especially this year, we've been really lucky to be really well stocked with food. So even on Wednesday evening at 6 p.m., we still have quite a bit of food, so feel free to even come in. At that point it won't be empty, the cupboard will be there. There will still be food for you to get for the week.
 
[Heidi]
Perfect. So, I grabbed my peanut butter and my Cheerios. Yeah, I have what I need. When can I come back if I need more?
 
[Kay]
Yeah, so you can come back every week. So, we are a weekly resource. So, we always encourage students take what you need for the week. Take what you need to supplement your groceries for the week. But then you can always return to us next week. You realize you forgot something, right? We're always open those two days a week, but we really encourage students come visit us once a week as a resource, but things happen.
 
[Heidi]
What kind of an impact is a place like this have on our campus?
 
[Kay]
Yeah, I think this impact is really far reaching. Right? We talk about households, but really it is so hard to be a student when you are hungry. If you are taking a test and your first thing is not trying to solve the problem, but recognizing the grumble in your stomach, it is so hard to focus. So, this impact is really trying to make sure students can focus on their academics first.
 
[Kay]
Many of our students are trying to balance extracurriculars, jobs and academics. We are trying to be one resource that takes a little bit of that stuff off their plate and hopefully put food on it. So, we are just trying to hopefully help students focus on being students.
 
[Heidi]
Absolutely. If a student were to walk in here, you know, maybe first time, maybe dozens of times, what would you want them to know?
 
[Kay]
Yeah, I think the biggest thing for us is we want them to know they're welcome here. There is no judgment here. There's a “no-questions-asked” policy. You get what you need. And we're not going to question and we're not going to judge it. So come and visit us and don't feel like you have to prove your need to us.
 
[Kay]
Right. We want students to come utilize the resource if they feel they need that extra assistance. We are a supplement to whatever their weekly routine is, so please come in. You will never be judged. You will never kind of be looked at sideways. This is a very safe space for students, and we want students to come utilize us.
 
[Kay]
So, we want to take away that stigma. You don't have to feel like you meet the certain threshold. We are here if you need us. Come visit us if you think you do.
 
[Heidi]
Thank you so much, Kay, Sloane and Keri, for doing this podcast with us on Jack's Cupboard. This is “The Yellow & Blue Podcast.” Take care, Jackrabbits.