The Students' Union food pantry is now open

Over the past few weeks, we have been working on a number of different projects to help students with the cost of living, one of which is starting our own food pantry in the Students’ Union Hub. When you find yourself short after paying for bills, rent or transport you shouldn’t be sacrificing meals and maintaining eating food regularly. Using the food pantry, we are hoping you can fill the gaps in your cupboard.

Data from the Office of National Statistics revealed that 50% of students felt they had financial difficulties, with 1 in 4 students taking on new debts to try and cover the shortfall. No student should be put in that situation. We know this won’t completely solve the problem, but we hope it provides some much-needed support. If you have more feedback on how the cost of living is affecting you, please fill our COL survey here.

So, what is the food pantry?

To begin, we are stocking up the cupboard to the right of the Students’ Union Hub Reception with long lasting food, this will vary depending on donations but includes items like tinned food, pasta, rice, and even, on occasion, some cleaning products. We hope that there is something for everyone who needs it!

We want to have the least possible barriers when accessing this food, so you don’t have to put down your name or speak to anyone – just turn up and take what you feel you need. You will be able to access the cupboard during the Students’ Union Hub opening times.

Our donations are currently coming from the Co-op but if you would like to donate some food, please drop it off at the Students' Union reception - we’re not expecting students to donate, but if you would like to you can (please note that we can’t accept any short-life food or anything that needs refrigerating). Volunteers are currently collecting the food from the Co-op and restocking the cupboard, if this is something you’d like to get involved in please get in touch (su-vpwelfare@qmul.ac.uk).