CHARLOTTE, N.C. — UNC Charlotte just wrapped up its "Giving Tuesday" campaign, spotlighting food insecurity in the Charlotte community.  

But staff members say they need the community's support year-round to meet a growing need for food items. 

The Jamil Niner Student Pantry is providing non-perishable and fresh food products to students and UNC Charlotte employees who may be struggling to get affordable food on the table. 

Volunteers say it's important for students to have access to a food pantry so they can focus on their work and not their next meal. 

"We want to make sure all the students here succeed," said Charlotte graduate student and volunteer Sofia Mejia. 

The assistant director over the food pantry, Jes Dormady, says food insecurity is a huge issue for many students. 

"I know we are trending about the same as the national average, which is about 29% of our students are food insecure," Dormady said. 

Dormady says the pantry needs are growing fast. 

Prior to the pandemic, the UNC Charlotte food pantry served around 60-70 appointments weekly. 

"Now we are seeing around 350 appointments every week," Dormady said. 

She says the majority of students using the pantry are graduate students and international students who live off campus and don't have a meal plan at the college.

One reason more students are needing the pantry's help is inflation. 

"Whether you think the pandemic is over or not, the [impact] of the pandemic is something we're still experiencing and our students are certainly experiencing," Dormady said. 

The rising costs of groceries is also making it harder for the college to keep up with the influx of students.

(UNC Charlotte)

"To be able to get even just our loaves of bread and purchase those, that's going to be around $23,000 a year," Dormady said. 

Dormady says the pantry is extremely grateful to it's partners, including Loaves & Fishes, for helping to keep food stocked in the pantry. 

"They've been accommodating even larger order requests on us," Dormady said. "We're getting anywhere from 1,300-2,000 lbs. of food per week from Loaves and Fishes. We're incredibly grateful, but the truth is the need is still there." 

She says right now, the pantry needs more products like fresh bread, frozen vegetables and feminine hygiene products for students. 

"Those are the things we really have to purchase at retail cost and it adds up when we're serving this amount of students," she said. 

Dormady says the pantry will need the community's ongoing support to meet the expected holiday demand, so students have all the food items they need. 

"Winter break is coming. We want to be able to send students home with as much food as possible since school will be out for over a month. So it's really important students have all the food they need during that break," Dormady said. 

Anyone interested in supporting the pantry can visit the Amazon wish list on the Giving Tuesday website. Dormady says the page will still be available for another week. 

Students can also access the wish list on the Jamil Niner Student Pantry page. 

Spectrum News 1 also contacted several colleges across the state to confirm if they're experiencing similar pantry needs. 

The Spartan Open Pantry serves students who attend UNC Greensboro and Greensboro College. The pantry provided this statement to our news team about their current food pantry needs: 

"Inflation affects our students' ability to meet their basic needs, including food. It also is significant in its effect on our donor's ability to give food and funds. Inflation is just an additional pressure on top of what has been and will continue to be a long-term struggle for college students. From our latest survey last semester, we know that 24% reported having difficulty paying rent. 44% of our students needed to borrow money from friends or family to pay bills. 47% reported that it was sometimes or often true that they worried they would run out of food. 46% said they couldn't afford to eat balanced meals.

This year (2022), we have already given out 45,232 lbs of food, and our pace is continuing to increase. Students are stressed, struggling, and navigating college in a difficult time. Especially for the 44% that indicated that they had trouble making ends meet as a child, any increased costs or barriers are always impactful.

Those increased costs also impact food pantries already stretched to meet demand. Gifts, especially funds, are critically important now. It is also important that we work to increase awareness of the scope of the problem and work to find long-term solutions to the food insecurity that so many of our neighbors face." Andrew Mails-Saine, Spartan Open Pantry 

Caroilina Cupboard Community Food Pantry serves students at UNC-Chapel Hill. In a statement, the pantry echoed similar inflation concerns about higher costs impacting students. Further encouraging people to support the pantries in their college communities: 

"We are relying on the Carolina community to help us out with covering the costs relating to purchasing food for our freezer and pots and pans for students to use. The support of our community is what helps us to continue to operate and by covering this story of pantries across North Carolina, we hope that each community feels inspired to assist with their local food pantry." Carolina Cupboard