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Food N Stuff

Trinity College has opened a food pantry—Food N Stuff—on the lower level of Mather Hall, offering free, unopened, nonperishable food items as well as hygiene products to ensure students have access to these goods throughout the academic year.

The pantry—opened in 2023 just before Thanksgiving—is a joint effort of Trinity’s Offices of Sustainability, Community Service and Civic Engagement, and International Students and Scholars; the Women and Gender Resource Action Center (WGRAC); P.R.I.D.E.; and the Bantam Network.

“We’ve heard many students struggle, especially over academic breaks, to feed themselves,” said Hayley Berliner, sustainability coordinator.

Food N Stuff is part of an increasing number of food pantries on college campuses nationwide. Throughout the last decade, the number has swelled from 80 to around 800, according to an August article in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

The extent of food insecurity among college students across the country has become evident in recent years. More than one in five undergraduates in the United States experience food insecurity, according to data from the 2020 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study. Food insecurity is defined as the limited or uncertain availability of adequate food or the ability to obtain that food in a socially acceptable way.

“As an international student, breaks have been extra hard because of food insecurity,” said Diarra Sadji ’25. “I am hoping that Food N Stuff will help all international students, as well as domestic students who will be on campus during breaks.”

In addition to the campus food pantry, Trinity participates in an array of initiatives that address hunger in the city, according to Joe Barber, director of community service and civic engagement. These include:

  • The Trinity Homelessness Project and Chartwells partner weekly to donate food prepared by Chartwells but never served. The group delivers the food to a local shelter, ImmaCare, on Park and Hungerford Streets.
  • The Trinity Homelessness Project also participates in the Hands On Hartford Backpack Nutrition Program, which provides backpacks of food each weekend for about 250 food-insecure schoolchildren. Trinity’s program is responsible for 25 of those backpacks each week, including shopping, packing, delivering, and fundraising.
  • The JELLO Community Service Organization goes each Thursday to A Place of Grace Food Pantry to help with weekly food distribution.

Anyone willing to donate food and hygiene products may drop off those items at the Office of Community Service (located in the lower level of Mather Hall next to the College Bookstore) or at the Cornelia Center on Vernon Street.