The Pokes Pantry is now a partner with Food Bank of Wyoming, and this means more food and better choices on pantry shelves.
The center offers a free food and clothing pantry to University of Wyoming students, faculty and staff. The Pokes Pantry is part of the Pokes Center for Community Resources.
Jess Dooley, University of Wyoming food security coordinator, said the partnership will help the pantry stock more fresh produce, healthy canned goods and staple ingredients.
“I’m excited because it’s going to give us a lot more variety in the foods we supply and it’s going to save us more money,” Dooley said.
Staples such as rice are in demand at the Pokes Pantry. The diverse backgrounds of the students, faculty and staff eligible to use the pantry make it possible to put a wide variety of foods on the shelves.
Carol Ryczek/Laramie Boomerang
Patrons shop at the pantry in the basement of the UW student union as they might at any other small grocery. They grab a basket, select as many goods as they need, and check out by weighing the basket and showing a UW identification.
“It’s a grocery model, a lot of choice, dignity,” Dooley explained. The only limits on the selections are for high-demand items, such as gallons of milk and fresh produce.
In 2024, the pantry experienced 5,100 visits, about 30-60 people a day.
Anya Denham, a graduate student intern at the Poke Center, is happy to see a free closet in the same location as the food pantry. Both offer free items without having to fill out an application or qualify.
“They just need a student ID,” she said. “It’s a one stop shop — clothes, food — not a tedious process.”
The food pantry is a result of the university’s study of students’ food insecurity. It opened in 2000 and reopened in its current student union location in January.
Though food insecurity for students has been around for a long time, the effort to correct it is relatively new. In addition to the university, community colleges and technical schools throughout the state are opening pantries.
The concept of hungry college students is not a new one, Dooley noted.
“It’s always been an issue. There’s been the stereotype of a typical college kids living on ramen, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and pizza, so I feel like here’s been some truth in that,” Dooley said. “It’s always been an issue, but now with inflation and the rising cost of college and increased prices against just about everything, it’s become more into focus with colleges and universities and their students.”
Danica Sveda, director of development for the Food Bank of Wyoming.
Carol Ryczek/Laramie Boomerang.
Danica Sveda, director of development for Food Bank of Wyoming, called programs like the Poke Pantry “bridges” to students’s success.
“I don’t think people were aware that just tuition and books wasn’t enough to get someone through an entire semester. They think, ‘I got this, and I’ve got a full-time job,’ and they start down the road and realize, to be able to make all their classes, do all their homework, get a full-time job really gets in the way of people being able to make it to completion,” she said. “And so these bridges, these supports we can offer students, really offers them a real opportunity to be successful at school.”
The new partnership between Food Bank of Wyoming and Pokes Pantry makes the UW location one of its 150 food partners.
Sveda said the diversity in populations throughout the state helps organizations make sure that food is going where it is both needed and appreciated.
For example, a case of rambutan, a fruit native to Southeast Asia, may sit unwanted on the shelves in many parts of Wyoming. With the number of international students in Laramie, there is a better chance that it will be used.
Dooley noted that items like lentils, which may not be popular in some locations, go quickly in Laramie as international students find them to be familiar ingredients.
Having familiar foods is important in countering food insecurity, explained Jill Stillwagon, Food Bank of Wyoming executive director.
Jill Stillwagon, executive director of the Food Bank of Wyoming.
Carol Ryczek/Laramie Boomerang
The goal is not to simply supply calories but to give people a way to put a familiar, balanced, nourishing meal on the table.
“Food insecurity is not having enough resources to purchase foods needed for a healthy, active life,” she said.
The breadth of the service from Food Bank of Wyoming helps make food available at wholesale costs or lower, Sveda said. It is funded through personal and foundation donations and serves as the distribution agency for the state for two federal grants.
Through Food Bank of Wyoming, every dollar spent will fund three meals.
The organization helps direct and deliver food to all 33 Wyoming counties, and works with other local agencies such as Interfaith and the Laramie Soup Kitchen.
Stillwagon said the response to the Pokes Pantry from the public has been positive.
“A good portion of people recognize that people are coming from all walks of life and experiencing different life experiences. Access to food is a right, a dignity we all deserve,” she said.
Dooley found the same response.
“They’re really a supportive community here at ‘U-Dub’ and in the larger community, very supportive of what we do,” she said.
Dooley has received student feedback that the pantry has been helpful. She added that she looks forward to adding more hours of operation, and more fresh produce, to the Pokes Pantry.
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