It’s an all too familiar feeling, the pang of hunger that strikes in the mid-afternoon void between lunch and dinner. As it grows, concentration becomes increasingly difficult and the likelihood of “hangriness” makes social interactions inadvisable. At that point, for most people, any type of sustenance will suffice; they’re willing to snack on almost anything to help get them back to feeling normal.
For the majority who experience hunger this way, the difficulties that come with it are merely an inconvenience and, often, something that can be joked about. For those who live with food insecurity, though, hunger and its effects are powerfully disruptive forces in their lives. The nonprofit Feeding America notes that people who lack reliable access to nutritious food experience higher levels of heart disease, stress, depression, social isolation and more. Those adversities make it nearly impossible to thrive in a school or work environment.
To understand how food insecurity impacts its students, Penn State Student Affairs conducted a survey of food and housing needs in 2022. The results, published in October 2023, showed that 14% of students across all campuses went an entire day without food inside of a 30-day period because they couldn’t afford it. Nearly 15% of respondents also said they struggled to secure enough food daily.
At University Park, several organizations work daily to provide students with resources to help fight food insecurity. In many instances, Schreyer Scholars are at the forefront of these efforts to strengthen Penn State’s student community. These are their stories:
Jimmy Alamia – Feed the People Market Stand founder
College students often struggle to make healthy food a part of their meal planning, whether due to budget, time or limited opportunities to shop. My hope is that the farm stand gives Penn State students regular access to fresh, healthy items.
Jimmy Alamia ’25, Engineering
A rising fourth-year Scholar studying chemical engineering, Jimmy Alamia drew inspiration for founding the pay-what-you-can market stand from a childhood experience.
Growing up, Alamia learned about the health benefits of natural, non-processed foods as a way to help deal with health issues that affected his digestive system. Since arriving at Penn State, he noticed how obstacles like food costs and a lack of grocery stores within walking distance of campus or downtown hindered students’ ability to buy fresh produce. Wanting to make a difference and improve access to healthful foods, Alamia came up with the idea for the Feed the People Market Stand.
In the fall of 2022, Alamia was working as the food justice project team lead for the Student Farm Club. On a tour of the Lion’s Pantry, the food bank at University Park that serves students, he realized it was lacking fresh produce. Thinking quickly, he brought a group together to brainstorm how the organizations could collaborate in using produce grown on the Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross Student Farm.
With help from a gift given by Robert and Cynthia Van Druff, Alamia and his team were able to bring his farm stand idea to life. Located centrally on campus, the stand runs once a week for 10 weeks during the Student Farm’s harvest season. Students who shop there pay what they’re able to for items like bok choy, cabbage, lettuce, varietal peppers and tomatoes, herbs, squash, garlic and more. In fall 2023, its most recent season, the farm stand sold or gave away more than 600 pounds of produce to nearly 400 customers.
As he prepares for his final year at Penn State and Schreyer, Alamia plans to continue working on University-wide projects with a focus on sustainability and food justice. He has taken on a new role as the Lion Pantry’s engagement director where he’ll work to increase involvement among the organization’s members and look to create partnerships outside of Penn State.
Emmanuel Kraft – Co-founder, The Food Recovery Network at Penn State
Addressing food insecurity in the State College community is crucial, and there’s more need than meets the eye. We’ve delivered over 2,000 meals [in the fall 2023] semester, and it’s essential to broadcast this need to increase awareness.
Emmanuel Kraft ’26, Liberal Arts
In the fall of 2022, Leslie Pillen, associate director of Penn State Farm and Food Systems, sent out an email asking students to join her study on food waste. Little did she know that her email would inspire a first-year student to go far beyond just studying food waste.
Emmanuel Kraft, a rising third-year Scholar studying political science and communication arts and sciences, responded to Pillen’s call. As a member of the research team, Kraft learned more about University Park’s food waste situation and how he could help improve it. He and the team devised a pilot program that, with collaboration from Penn State, provided important assistance to Centre County residents in need.
By gathering leftover, unserved food from campus eateries, the students were able to donate meals to Out of the Cold Centre County. The success of the pilot spurred Kraft and the group to co-found Penn State’s chapter of the Food Recovery Network. Today, thanks to an official partnership with Penn State’s dining halls, the Food Recovery Network has added the Lion’s Pantry, Abba Java Coffeehouse and St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church alongside Out of the Cold to its roster of organizations that receive donated meals.
Since helping to found the organization, Kraft has taken roles as the Food Recovery Network’s secretary and community relations coordinator. His efforts are focused on coordinating communication among all the partner organizations, maintaining food safety regulations and coordinating food transportation to its various destinations.
To date, Penn State’s Food Recovery Network chapter has turned 6,119 pounds of recovered food into 6,702 meals donated to the local community.
Juan-Rodrigo Solares – President, The Lion’s Pantry
We can all agree that hunger is one of the worst feelings because it drains you and prevents you from focusing on anything else. I want to work on solving this issue and help keep people from feeling hungry at night because it can be so detrimental.
Juan-Rodrigo Solares ’25, Science
While growing up in Guatemala, Juan-Rodrigo Solares saw how food insecurity and hunger can harm a community. He recalls newspaper reports of children suffering from malnutrition during a humanitarian crisis and people in the streets during the COVID-19 pandemic waving white flags to beg for food.
He also remembers his family’s efforts to help others in their community however they could. As a child, the spirit of giving back he saw in his parents and grandfather inspired Solares to seek out opportunities where he could serve others. When the time came to make his college decision, Solares could see himself at Penn State, in part, because the university’s focus on philanthropy and service work aligned so well with his values.
After working with volunteer organizations to host food drives during his high school years, Solares, in his first year at Penn State, joined the Lion’s Pantry as a general volunteer. He was bound for greater heights, though, and quickly ascended over the next few years to serving as the organization’s pantry manager, vice president and, ultimately, its president. Throughout that time, he came to understand the true scope of the pantry’s work and how many students relied on it for support.
As a result, Solares has focused his efforts on forging partnerships with other student organizations throughout the university. He and his team helped increase the volunteer hours worked by students from other organizations which has raised awareness of the Lion’s Pantry through word of mouth and social media. Solares also helped the pantry connect with groups like the Lion Ambassadors and Student Black Caucus for partnerships on food drives. Additionally, he organized a pair of fundraisers in fall 2023 that combined to bring in over $30,000 for the Lion’s Pantry.
Throughout the upcoming academic year, Solares will be finishing his biochemistry and molecular biology degree and working to complete his thesis. At the same time, he’ll be working with his Lion’s Pantry colleagues to continue growing the organization and serving Penn State students in need.
The Schreyer Pocket Garden
The pocket garden exists not only to provide affordable produce to students, but also to educate them in growing their own food, empower them and educate them.
Vancie Peacock ’24, Schreyer Pocket Garden Founder
Founded in 2022, the Schreyer Pocket Garden occupies a small parcel of land in a courtyard outside of Simmons Hall at University Park. Despite its “youth” and modest size, the garden has made a sizable impression on Penn State students through the crops it produces and the volunteer experiences it offers.
Vancie Peacock, a 2024 Scholar alumni with a bachelor of science degree in agricultural engineering, founded the Schreyer Pocket Garden in just her second year on campus. It was a collaborative effort with help from the Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross Student Farm, Penn State’s Office of Physical Plant and other students. Peacock’s vision came to life with the construction of four raised garden beds and a dedicated group of volunteers eager to learn and give back to their community.
From its beginning, the pocket garden has partnered with the Lion’s Pantry to get fresh and easy-to-prepare produce into students’ hands. Throughout the garden’s first year, staff at the Lion’s Pantry sent word back to the pocket garden that its produce was always in high demand and went quickly. The garden’s staff and leadership were encouraged by the response and put plans in place to expand their reach beyond campus.
Partnerships have now been forged with the White Course Weston Community Center and Abba Java Coffeehouse in State College. Both establishments provide free food for visitors and hold community events where the garden’s crops can be used to feed the public.
In addition to expanding partnerships for distributing its produce, the Schreyer Pocket Garden has grown its volunteer base by working with student organizations on campus. The garden will work any club that wishes to learn more about growing crops by hosting group workdays, special harvests and educational planting events. Partnerships have already been forged with the Pre-Vet Club, the Indian Grad Association and the Schreyer Student Council.
Thanks to the efforts of everyone involved, the Schreyer Pocket Garden has donated nearly 400 pounds of produce to its partner organizations over two years. Over 100 volunteer hours have helped to make that success possible, and it appears the garden is poised to continue its growth in the coming years.
To support Scholars with immediate food insecurity needs, help us stock our Scholars’ Pantry. The Scholars’ Pantry is a grab-and-go resource center providing free supplemental food, hygiene supplies, and other necessities to Schreyer Scholars. Visit our Amazon WIshlist to directly purchase and send essential items.
