The Iowa State University food pantry, the SHOP, is a resource available to all students. Non-perishables, fresh fruit, frozen items, and basic hygiene products are all there for students to take at their necessity, the only limits being per item and one trip per week.
SHOP stands for “Students Helping Our Peers,” and is connected to organizations like Reiman Gardens, the United States Department of Agriculture, Iowa Food Bank, Fairway Market and Iowa State farms. The goal of the SHOP is providing all students with consistent and comfortable access to food and hygiene supplies.
Saman Jamal, a junior in management information systems, is a food security assistant at the SHOP. Jamal went into detail about the target student audience this service had in mind in its conception.
“Some students, we do check their financial status,” Jamal said. “We do have emergency food assessment forms that they fill out before registering with us, so that shows how much they are in need of and how much they eat.”
Depending on their demonstrated need, students with specific circumstances are allowed to take more products.
“Some students have a spouse and kids, then they get a bigger quantity of products as opposed to a student just supporting themselves,” Jamal said.
Jamal went further into detail about how a student uses the SHOP.
“They come to the SHOP with their ISU card, and we register them, and then they can come once a calendar week,” Jamal said. “There is no limit, they can get as many products as they want, but we do have limit signs on each product.”
The SHOP also accepts donations. They have a list available on their website of donation requests.
Since it is homecoming week, teams comprised of different sororities and fraternities are competing to donate the most items for the Give What You Can food drive.
Eleanor Defoe, a junior majoring in marketing, is a member of Delta Delta Delta and the Cy King homecoming team. Defoe was among members of her sorority, Theta Delta Kai and Phi Delta Theta, dropping off the $2,000 dollars worth of food they collected for the SHOP as part of the Give What You Can competition.
She went further into depth about the competition and the specifics of the donations.
“This is called ‘Give What You Can.’ That’s the name of this food drive,” Defoe said. “It’s a big part of the community service for homecoming for all the teams… Giving back is an important part of what Greek life stands for on campus.”
Defoe described what her group had donated to the SHOP.
“There was a max volume per can and a max of cans we could get,” Defoe said. “We also have microwave-safe meals that are shelf-stable. We have textured hair shampoo and conditioner.”
Defoe explained the specifics of the Give What You Can competition’s rules and how much her group had raised for the project.
“We were given our list of items and told we would be placed and ranked based on the weight of total items,” Defoe said. ”Our team, obviously, our goal was to get the heaviest amount of items. We raised $2,000 between our chapters.”
The SHOP is located at 1306 Beyer Hall. It is open from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, 1 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays. More information can be found on the SHOP’s website.