The Shark Food Pantry provides free groceries and toiletries to students

By Bryce Johnson •

The Shark Food Pantry, located on the second floor of the University Center, is a resource open to all students. Each week, students can take up to 10 pounds of food, such as bread, milk, rice and cereal, as well as toiletry items like toothpaste and feminine hygiene products.

The idea for the pantry came from Meline Kevorkian, NSU associate provost and dean of the College of Computing and Engineering, in 2021.

“That was her brainchild and then she said, ‘OK, make this happen.’ So that’s what we did. [She’s] one of our biggest advocates,” Katie Gittleman, director of STEM initiatives and outreach with the College of Computing and Engineering and Academic Affairs, said.

Gittleman remembers the meeting when Kevorkian told her about the idea.

“They had recently had a student that was really struggling to provide himself food. One of the faculty members happened to see him on campus and saw him taking food out of a garbage can. So he provided the student some money and tried to help him,” Gittleman said. “They took care of that, but then she thought on a bigger scale, maybe we need to be providing our students with a resource, because he’s probably not the only student that’s struggling with this.”

Gittleman worked with the Undergraduate Student Government Association and the Department of Nutrition to start the pantry, which originally opened in the Carl DeSantis building in Nov. 2021.

The Shepard Broad College of Law helped fund the Shark Food Pantry by holding a canned food drive. Every year since, the college has donated to the Shark Food Pantry, giving almost 9,000 items this year.

“The one thing that stands out the most to me is how thankful the students are. Obviously they like the items, but they’re very genuine and they’re being authentic and very thankful,” Gittleman said. “Even when I’m there, because the students really run the pantry, they are really thankful.”

Gittleman said she didn’t realize the extent of the need on campus.

“And to be honest, I don’t even think we’re really capturing the need,” she said. “I think there’s way more students that either don’t know about it or are not sure if they want to participate in it for whatever reason. But I don’t even think we’re scratching the surface.”

Aundria Mitchell, sophomore computer science major, is one of the pantry ambassadors. Mitchell hopes that the pantry can grow to have more variety of food.

“Right now, we’re just doing like pantry staple items, so hopefully we get a bigger fridge, compared to the other campuses that have it. I think UF is huge, their pantry is huge, like industrial, supermarket type of fridges. I wish we could have that. So hopefully we go big enough to have that,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell learned about the pantry when she had Gittleman as her UNIV professor.

“I love it here,” Mitchell said. “I do like working here. I don’t even think I could imagine not having a job here. Not knocking the desk jobs, but I feel like that is probably a little boring compared to this where I’m up and running. I’m doing a lot. I’m interacting with a lot of people. I do love that aspect, even though I’m sometimes antisocial, but this is very refreshing to get out of my dorm and then help people. I love it.”

Andrea Concepcion, senior public health major, is the Shark Food Pantry coordinator and oversees the ambassadors. Concepcion enjoys meeting so many students through the pantry.

“Once we got the two fridges, I think people were crazy for it. They loved it so much. People would come here and make the line one hour early so they would make sure they got their fridge items or freezer items,” Concepcion said. “We have grown so much since I started working here, but I still feel like there’s room for more. We definitely need to promote a little bit more on the graduate side of the school.”

Pantry donors include Publix, Trader Joe’s, Pepsi, Southeastern Grocers, The Public Interest Law Society, Swipe out Hunger, NSU students, faculty and staff, and the local community.