Yes, Penn State University provides many different interventions are in place to prevent or alleviate hunger among students. For example:

  • Campus food pantries: All Penn State campuses have food pantries on campus or in the community.
  • The Food Recovery Network, started by students, collects and delivers unserved food four times each week from four campus dining halls, donating to shelters, pantries, and other organizations in need.
  • Greater Allegheny’s Food Security Initiative includes a Pop-Up Market mobile food pantry, Meal Plan Support services, and Campus Grab & Go Stations which are strategically and discreetly placed in high traffic areas on campus frequented by students. Offerings included small containers of canned fruit, sealed containers with granola bars and crackers, and other snacks that are nutritious and easy to eat on the run.
  • The Student Farm operates a Feed the People market at the student union every fall, a pay what you can vegetable market.
  • Market East on the 1st floor of Findlay Commons on the University Park campus accepts SNAP (Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program) payment.
  • In the fall of 2022, the university began outreach to Food and Housing Needs Survey participants. Thousands of students across the University completed the Penn State Food and Housing Needs Survey, which closed on Oct. 21, 2021. The Food and Housing Needs Survey results which were shared in the May, 2022 Penn State News story “Penn State shares results of Food and Housing Needs Survey” helped the University learn more about the prevalence of need across each Penn State campus, including Penn State’s World Campus which provides education online. Student Care and Advocacy, a unit of Penn State Student Affairs, coordinated outreach to students at every campus whose survey results indicated a varying level of need related to securing basic resources. The outreach included emails to share resources and individual meetings to provide additional support.
  • In February 2021, Penn State released the Food and Housing Security Task Force Report that included a baseline analysis of the issues and recommendations. The food pantries on all campuses are dedicated to supporting food insecure students/staff on campus. A listing can be found on the Food Support and Basic Resources website.
  • Former President Eric Barron and his wife Molly made a gift to establish a Food Security Endowment to support the purchase of University meal plans for undergraduates encountering food insecurity.
  • Penn State researchers, focusing on Pennsylvania, analyzed survey data to assess the most recent levels of household food security, how food security has changed over the course of the pandemic, and how households in different income brackets have experienced the crisis. They also assessed how families have adapted to food insufficiency by accessing free food and released their findings in a Data Brief titled “Pennsylvania Food Insufficiency Reached New High at the End of 2020.”