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Central Florida Public Media

Bethune-Cookman University latest Florida college to add food pantry

By Luis-Alfredo Garcia

February 4, 2025 at 9:06 AM EST

Bethune-Cookman University and The Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida have teamed up in an effort to combat food insecurity on the college campus.

Mary’s Market food pantry received its first food shipment Monday, and it is stocked for both students and school faculty. It is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Daytona Beach university’s General Studies building.

Briana Rebello, School Partnerships Program Manager at The Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, said opening the pantry is just one of the first steps in battling food insecurity at the school. The rest of the fight comes in attracting people to the pantry and adapting to the number of people who use it.

“How can we make this a welcome, open environment that students want to be a part of?” Rebello asked. “It starts by not asking questions.”

Students are free to pick up anything from a before-test snack or food to take home. There are no limits as to what they can take from the pantry, but Rebello said B-CU is at its own discretion in changing that freedom should stocking certain items become an issue. She noted that with every limit, however, there is an exception.

“Maybe that student’s coming in and taking five of one popular item because they have a really big household,” she said.

In 2012, there were 88 food pantries on college campuses, according to the Trellis Company. Now, there are more than 800. The same study found that of the colleges and universities with an on-campus food distribution center, only 38% of the students at these schools were aware of their existence.

Rebello adds that The Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida works with schools to ensure students are informed of the opportunities. B-CU has had an uptick in both enrollment and applications – with more than 3,100 students enrolled for the Fall 2024 academic year. All are encouraged to visit the pantry.

About 3.8 million college students experienced food insecurity in 2020, according to a 2024 study from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. And, the same study found that about 38% of students at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) were food insecure; about 23% of all college students face this insecurity at the national level.

Rebello said proper nutrition is important for college students, as is with students in the K-12 levels of education. The pantry partnership hopes to help the HBCU and its pupils.

“As a society, we’ve almost kind of accepted that college hunger is normal. And it’s totally not,” she said.