Bear Pantry Celebrates Grand Reopening

The opening of the new and improved Bear Pantry and Center for Student Well-Being kicked off on Monday afternoon, hosted by the UNC Office of Student Outreach and Support.

Bear Pantry, now located on the first floor of the University Center next to Subway and Munchy Mart, celebrated its extension by hosting tours and inviting members of the UNC community to experience it. The renovations included expanding the space, including a new checkout counter, providing more shelves and refrigerator storage, and changing the overall design of the pantry to resemble a grocery store.

“I feel like upstairs it was a little more hidden and a lot of people just didn’t know where it was…having a space that says, like, ‘hey, we’re here!’ will entice more students to come in,” said Student Manager, Katie Brunetti.

This expansion allows them to provide even more food and other necessary items for students. According to Director of the Center for Student Well-Being, Taylor Schiestel, students are now able to have access to fresh produce year round compared to previously when students only had access to produce on campus a few times a semester thanks to the Weld Food Bank Mobile Pantry.

“Now students will have access all month long and all year long to fresh produce as well as being like a one-stop shop for all student needs,” she said.

According to the Government Accountability Office, nearly 40% of college students nationwide experience some form of food insecurity. Food insecurity is much more common than most people would assume. Bear Pantry is a resource that those in the UNC community can utilize to combat this and take care of themselves by being provided: food, hygiene products, menstrual/sexual health products, and more. Every week, students are able to go in and choose up to 7 items at no cost to them.

“We get a lot of students coming in saying that they are picking their tuition over eating that day and a lot of students skipping meals just to pay their tuition, and that's not right,” Schiestel said.

The Bear Pantry, alongside the Center for Student Well-Being, strives to eliminate the stigma around food insecurity and works with students to make sure their basic needs are provided for.

“It’s such a wide thing, like everyone has probably faced it in their lives and it's, like, a much bigger population than we realize and kind of erasing that stigma and making it more known, like, ‘hey we have these resources for you and we want you to succeed..’ showing people that it’s not just them, because that's how I felt the first couple years I was at UNC,” Bernetti said.

Both the Bear Pantry and the Center for Student-Well Being provides a safe space for all and embodies community spirit.

“It’s a safe space for everyone. You come in here and you still realize that there's like a lot of really good things still left in our world and there’s a lot of really good people,” Schiestel said.