I'd like to welcome everyone back to the counseling and psychological
services podcast series. Today, we're going to be learning more about
the Student Support and Advocacy Centers, Patriot Pantry, and what
that is, how students might access it, and we have Matt Carlos with us
to explain more about this. I'm Matt Carlos. I am the Assistant
Director for Student Support and Community Outreach here at George
Mason University and the Student Support and Advocacy Center. Matt, so
let's go ahead and get started. If you could tell us more about what
the patriot pantry is and how it might be helpful for GMU students.
Yeah. So the Patriot Pantry is a resource here on campus, where
students who are experiencing food insecurity can come and they can
get basic food and hygiene items from the pantry, all non-perishable
items. Thank you for that. Matt, how might a student get access to the
pantry? Do they have to sign up? Yes and no. So we do walk-in
appointments, but we would prefer that a student schedule an
appointment with us because we try and keep it as private as possible
for the student that's using the pantry. So if they send us an email
to pantry@gmu.edu, we'll respond back and then we'll send them our
online scheduling link. So from there, it will have all the hours that
were open that week and they can really make their own appointment
from there. Matt, I'm hoping you can speak to the private nature of
the pantry. We keep it as private as possible. The staff in the pantry
are undergraduate students. So if they learn of safety concern or
something, they would need to share that with their supervisors. But
we try and keep all the information private. So say, the student will
fill out an intake form. We keep all that information private. No one
needs to know that. So we better understand what students are
experiencing or who are experiencing food insecurity have going on
here at Mason. Why would you say that the Patriot Pantry is a unique
part of the work that SSAC is doing? So the patriot pantry from its
inception is bounced around some different offices and who was going
to be responsible for the pantry. Then finally, it made sense that it
landed in our office because part of the nature, the work that we do
supporting students, we have a lot of students that are experiencing
food insecurity in our office in combination with a lot of different
other concerns. So it really made sense because we are having the most
contact with students with these types of concerns that it stayed in
our office, and there's a really good support service for students.
Matt, that sounds like really cool and impactful work that you are
doing as part of SSAC. What keeps you doing the work here? So I've
been working with the pantry since I got started here at Mason as a
graduate student, and I've seen it evolve and develop over time. Food
insecurity is this growing conversation that's happening across
college campuses, across the country really. So it's a really, for me,
impactful being a part of a resource that's really helping to address
food insecurity. The students that use the pantry are really grateful
for the resource as well, and it's really a direct service that we can
provide. You see the impact right away for students, they walk into
the pantry and they're blown away by how many different items that we
have in the pantry. So it's really fun being a part of that team that
works in the pantry that's saying, all right, what are creative ideas
that we can do to address food insecurity? Diversity is an important
component of Mason of CAPS and of course of SSAC, and I was hoping you
could speak to how the pantry is thoughtful of these different ideas
and identity factors. So one cool thing about the pantry and this is
something that we've continued to evolve over the time that the pantry
has been around, but we want to try and make sure that we're very
intentional about what food or items that we have on the shelves. So
we have this cool little pillar, that's one of these columns where we
can write with a magic marker, whatever on there, and we can say
requested items. So students are able to say, hey, here are items that
maybe you didn't have on the pantry shelves that we want to have on
the pantry shelves. It helps us to be really intentional about the
items that were stocking, the items that we don't have when we're
asking folks to do food drives. We can also provide that direct
information to folks and say, hey, students are asking for this type
of product, students are asking for kosher items, or they may be
asking for whatever it is. We don't have to guess either. We want to
be really intentional and we want to get that information from
students. Another way is we're trying to do more partnerships with
different odds on campus. So we're saying, hey, this is a culturally
related org, help us understand what foods or items could be really
important that we keep on the shelves for the pantry. Lastly, Matt, is
there anything that would be really important in terms of information
nuggets that you would like students to know either about SSAC or
about the Patriot Pantry? Yeah, I would definitely say, it's a great
question. Really, you're not the only one, especially at food
insecurity. There's a really significant stigma that goes around food
insecurity with college students. So really, anyone that's listening
right now just understanding and knowing. If you're experiencing food
insecurity, you are not the only one. We are here to support you and
we want to understand how we can better support you. So come in, talk
with us, tell us, hey, this was really helpful. Also tell us, this
wasn't helpful. So yeah, that would be a nugget information I would
pass along. I'm Matt Carlos. I am the Assistant Director for Student
Support and Community Outreach here at George Mason University and the
Student Support and Advocacy Center.