Jared Daniels
Staff Writer
With the threat of food insecurity at many college students’ doorsteps, the Psychology and English Departments have implemented Food Share Cabinets for the University of Wyoming community.
Students that are food insecure are students who lack any reliable access to affordable and nutritious food, and have no knowledge of what they would eat as their next meal. These cabinets encourage students to take food and hygiene products, and to donate when possible.
The University of Wyoming’s entire community is welcomed to use and donate to these food share cabinets. The cabinets are set up in a way students can share food with one another regardless of need. One of the new cabinets is located in Hoyt Hall near the east entrance, the other is located in Biological Science 129.
“It’s important to meet every person’s basic needs. We have a responsibility to one another, and the people who need a bit of food or help now, will be the people who help others in turn sometime in the future. Things like this are how we build healthy, vibrant communities,” said Scott Henkle, the director of the Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research and an associate professor in the departments of English and African American and Diaspora Studies.
Donations to the food share cabinet can include dry goods, canned goods, shelf stable produce, packaged snacks and personal hygiene items. Donated items can be brought to the Hoyt Hall 126 for the english department’s food cabinet. Cash donations for the cabinet are also accepted. The english department asks donors to deliver the cash donations to Hoyt Hall 134.
A multitude of different food share cabinets exist across campus from the SALivation station in the Visual Arts Building, which includes an entire kitchen space as their cabinet, to the first food share cabinet in the Bim Kendall House started in 2017.
“It’s important to me that everyone’s basic needs are met–it’s the right thing to do,” said Henkle. “if a student’s basic needs are met, they will be able to concentrate better in class, think more clearly and produce work that expresses their talents more fully.”
A Feeding America’s Study – Map the Meal Gap 2019 – claimed food insecurity begins a cycle. The cycle said food insecurities lead to coping strategies, chronic disease and healthcare expenditures. Eventually the study claimed these lead to a difficulty finding work, spending trade offs and finally food insecurity, which begins the cycle again.
According to County Health Rankings, Albany County has the highest percentage of food insecure individuals in Wyoming at 17% of its population. Albany County’s percentage is 5% more than the next county. In the Map the Meal Gap 2019 study, 3 out of 10 people who are food insecure qualify for government nutrition programs.
Alanna Elder, a University student who graduated in 2018, found in her honors thesis that 37% of students at the University of Wyoming have low to very low food insecurity. Low to very low food insecurity means these students have a reduced nutritional diet and a reduction to their food intake.
