The University of Connecticut Avery Point campus opened a Husky Harvest location to help combat food insecurity across the state.
Husky Harvests are food pantries that UConn regional campuses have begun to open one by one, an NBC Connecticut article said.
The Avery Point Campus location is the third regional campus pantry to open out of the four locations, an NBC Connecticut article said. The goal of the pantries is to fight food insecurity in Connecticut specifically for college students and their families.
“While many students do not openly share their need for something like Husky Harvest, it is an effort that surely some will use,” sixth semester marketing major Maddie Brunnock said.
“I have never directly heard of UConn students facing food insecurities but I know there are programs and organizations here that help students with them,” Brunnock said. “There definitely is a need for these programs currently and in the future.”
Brunnock attended UConn’s Avery Point campus for a semester during her freshman year because of restrictions on the Storrs campus due to COVID-19.
“I decided to not attend classes at Storrs that semester because everything was mostly online. I live close to the Avery Point campus and found an in person class for that semester that I could take,” Brunnock said.
Brunnock explained how many regional campus students are commuters.
“They can come here and grab snacks to consume right away,” Associate Campus Director Janene Vandi said in an NBC Connecticut article. “A lot of the other food in the pantry is meant for them to take home to their families and prepare.”
The necessity for Husky Harvest was shown through anonymous surveys students at UConn regional campuses took, an NBC Connecticut article said.
Being the state school, UConn and its regional campuses have the ability to help students and residents across Connecticut, Brunnock mentioned.
“UConn is a good institution to help with food insecurity because they have access to enough resources to help large numbers of people,” Brunnock said.
Connecticut Foodshare partnered with Husky Harvest to make its locations and mission possible, an NBC Connecticut article said.
“People think that there’s no problem with poverty here in Connecticut. Absolutely, 100%, not true,” said Connecticut Foodshare President and CEO Jason Jakubowski in an NBC Connecticut article.
If Husky Harvest truly does make a difference in its first few months of operation, Brunnock thinks its operations should be extended to Storrs.
“I believe something like that at UConn Storrs would be widely used by students and faculty in need,” Brunnock said.
