Post-secondary students feeling affordability pinch as more turn to campus pantry

Post secondary students are turning towards campus pantry options as they struggle with affordability.

Affordability issues aren’t just affecting families and homeowners. Post-secondary students are feeling the squeeze too and turning to the campus pantry for support.

“We have 280 students coming in every single month to seek that service,” said Husam Morr, president of the University of Windsor Student Alliance.

The pantry is located on the second floor of the CAW Student Centre in room 235.

“Part of the centre is educating students and battling that stigma, that’s why we released a food locker initiative for example where students can go to a locker and get that food,” said Morr.

Morr suspects the number of visitors would be higher if more people knew about the centre.

“The food pantry is a service to support students, but it shouldn’t stop there,” Morr told CTV News.

“We need more services and initiatives on our campus and other campuses.”

Sam Rohr is a student athlete from Wellesley, Ont. living on his own and says living can be a challenge with rising food costs and rent.

“Fortunately, I’m lucky to have my parents support me. If you weren’t as lucky and you didn’t have that support, it’s a lot. Especially when you have all the other stresses,” he said.

His track and field teammate, Kade Campbell, says the challenge increases as an athlete.

“We see a lot of kids that may have trouble affording food but also in a sport that demands that you have food so much and require getting nutrients constantly, it makes it so hard with rising prices and being able to afford food.”

Mark Heese is at the Toldo Lancer Centre this weekend for the USports national men’s volleyball championships. Prior to arriving, he was surprised to hear that students who are the same age as his son Markus, a setter for the Windsor Lancers, are experiencing food insecurity.

Through his company, Volleyball United, he hopes to raise money to help out the pantry.

“When I learned that there’s people like my son out there that’s struggling to find the right nutrition as an athlete, as a student, that’s not right,” Heese said.

“Every item that you purchase here, you’ll be asked to donate to Volleyball United in support of the food drive at the university so at the end of the event, hopefully we can give a big chunk of change to support the efforts of the food pantry.”