The Pokes Food Pantry Offering Free Food and Supplies to Students
Photo by Luke Melinkovich
LARAMIE, Wy. — In Wyoming, 94,440 (or 1 in 6) residents face food insecurity, including roughly 25,700 to 27,230 (or 1 in 5) children, according to Feeding America.
To address food insecurity, lack of clothing, lack of hygiene products, and the needs of college students’ children, the University of Wyoming has made Pokes Food Share Pantry available to students in need on campus.
“The Polk’s Pantry is a program of the overall Polk Center for Community Resources,” said Jess Dooley, who oversees the programming and operation of the Polk Center for Community Resources. “Essentially, we provide food and some cleaning, hygiene, personal care items as well to students, staff, and faculty of the University of Wyoming. And so, we know that food insecurity affects around 40% of our student population.”
Dooley explained that the Pantry’s purpose is “to keep students fed, provide them with nutritious food and meals in order to allow them to succeed and do their best while they’re here at the university.”
The food pantry is available to students, staff, and faculty with a valid UW ID.
In order to use the pantry, participants are required to create a Pantry Soft, so the facility can keep track of data and inventory to report the higher-ups on campus for funding purposes.
There is no requirement for participants to “prove” that they are struggling.
“We have a limit of essentially 45 items a week,” Dooley explained. “That ranges from anything from a bag of cereal, to a bag of tea. 45 items a week from the pantry side of things. And then clothing, we allow up to 10 clothing items per visit. You’re not limited to the number of times per week that you can come in.”
The Pokes Food Pantry operates on an appointment-based system, so Dooley recommends that people schedule ahead of time through the Pantry Soft website, which can be accessed on the Pokes Food Pantry page (on the UW website).
Last year alone, over 7,900 visits were made to the pantry from around 403 individual household units, roughly translating to about 48 people seen at the food pantry each day.
Some of the biggest priorities of the Food Pantry are providing for hygiene and childcare.
“Those items, I’ll say, are a little harder to source, but we do have a variety of [things] like menstrual products, diapers, laundry detergent, tooth kits, soaps, things like that,” said Dooley. “We kind of try and have it all. We also have, as part of our village program, we have some children’s clothing, which is very popular as well. We kind of try and be a one-stop shop.”
The food pantry also operates a small library that allows participants to give books, take books, or borrow books to return once finished.
“We are open to everybody in the University of Wyoming community. No proof of need is necessary,” said Dooley.
The pantry is even available if students are “wanting a snack between classes,” she explained. “We have a lot of great snack options.”
In addition, Dooley stated that the pantry also has fresh produce and donated clothing items.
“I encourage folks to just kind of check it out every once in a while and see if we have anything that might interest them.”
Dooley also spoke about how “a lot of students say like, ‘oh, I don’t, I’m not the person who’s in need. Like more people need this than I do.’”
To that, Dooley says, “No, come in. It is quite all right. We want you to come in.”
Students who have questions about the Pokes Food Pantry or other community resources on campus can email or call the Pokes Center for Community Resources at pccr@uwyo.edu and (307) 766-6467.
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