Locker installments in Edinburg food pantry

A grant from H-E-B was awarded to the Student Food Pantry for the installment of lockers on the Edinburg campus for students who are not available during the pantry’s distribution days.

The 17 lockers are available only on the Edinburg campus, as it reaches a wider variety of students, according to Maria Barrera, a Student Food Pantry attendant.

“It was about 25 a week as opposed to Brownsville, where it’s maybe like 10 to 15 per week,” Barrera said, referring to the number of students who use the service.

Eric Martinez, Student Food Pantry manager, said the lockers will, hopefully, be added in Brownsville, depending on how the locker system works in Edinburg.

“It’d be really awesome to have it on both campuses,” Martinez said. “But, as of right now, it’s only here in Edinburg and we have around 17 lockers that were installed. But, the way the system works is that … not only 17 people can come per week and use the locker. It’s like once your order’s [picked up] … the lockers are able to be used again and it’s like a whole cycle.”

Douglas Stoves, associate dean for Students Rights and Responsibilities, said another reason why the lockers make sense is because of the stigma that can be attached to accessing the food pantry.

 “[Students] may think that people think less of them if they’re getting meals from the food pantry or things of that sort,” Stoves said.

He said during the pandemic, one of the things that the pantry found is that students prefer curbside delivery.

“But then, we had the issue where students couldn’t always make it when we were open and doing the distribution so as we started thinking about, you know, how do we reduce this stigma, allow students to pick up their foodstuffs and to do so in an environment that’s more comfortable,” Stoves said. “That’s how we came up with the idea of installing these lockers and, so, that was really the impetus behind it.”

Food is distributed by pantry employees on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Barrera said their inventory does change every now and then, so the pantry updates the order form online and students can see what is new and what is available to order every week.

Before submitting an order form, students must fill out a Food Pantry Student Enrollment form on the UTRGV website.

The lockers are not refrigerated so no perishable items can be left in them. Once their order is ready, they will receive an email with a combination to open the locker.

Martinez said with the campus opening up again, the pantry might hold clothes drives as was done in the past.

“Students would donate their clothing, like jackets or some shirts or coats that they might have, things that they don’t necessarily need anymore,” he said. “And, well, since the pandemic started, like, we haven’t been able to, like, accept those for sanitary purposes but we’re in the talks of like, maybe starting that again sometime soon. We have all the equipment here. … But, as of right now, it’s just trying to see how the locker system goes.”

Students interested in donating to or volunteering at the pantry may visit utrgv.edu/foodpantry.