University of Massachusetts launches the Center for Basic Needs for Student Leadership
According to the 2024 data from Temple University’s Hope Center, an estimated 59% of all college students have experienced some form of housing or food insecurity over the past year. Nearly three-quarters of students lack access to other basic needs, such as mental health care, parenting, transportation or technology.
At the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, students are the first to notice the need for additional resources for their peers.
Spencer Moser, assistant to student growth and well-being at MCLA, teaches the Leadership Clippers course, in which students complete a community-based service program. “A group of students knew some of their peers were in class,” he recalled.
As part of the assignment, students researched available resources to meet basic needs insecurity and identified campus storage needs.
“The plan was originally in the drawer on my desk,” Moselle said. “Then, it filled up more and more shelves, a closet, and eventually its own space on campus.”
Now, MCLA hosts a Basic Demand Center (ENC) on campus to face students who may face financial barriers to buying food, housing or other essential items.
How it works: The Basic Demand Center is located in the campus center and is open 24 hours a day from Monday to Thursday, with more time on Fridays. The center provides students with food, housing and transportation assistance, seasonal clothing and more.
Students can use a variety of resources to address food insecurity, including snap-ups or instant meals and free meals in restaurants, and help with their snapshot application. The center’s website also provides links to recipes using MCLA’s pantry staples to help students provide minimal cooking experience.
One of the unique products of the MCLA Center is a construction supervisor that allows students to request a wide range of personal health, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom or cleaning items as well as school supplies. Students can submit online forms requiring from first aid kits to baking supplies and bath mats.
The food pantry has a small budget and the college is supplemented by grants, partnerships with Western Massachusetts Food Bank and donors. Interested donors can provide non-rotten food, toiletries or monetary donations.
Student Support: ENC started out with students who wanted to support their classmates, and student leadership continued to be at the heart of the center’s work.
“Students manage inventory and make sure their peers know this resource, the work center,” Moselle said. “The center is student-run, managed and designed to be student-centric because students believe students understand their needs best.”
Mossel said the pantry has 400 to 500 students using the pantry regularly, with a total of 1,313 visits between November 2023 and January 2025.
In the fall of 2024 alone, ENC recorded 729 visits (including visits from 96 first-time visitors) and distributed 2,600 items.
Other success modes
Basic needs insecurity can affect college students across the country, hinder their academic progress and force them to choose between educational pursuits and personal needs. Here are some examples of how other universities and universities can promote student well-being.
- Students at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland have created a recipe that contains items from campus food pantry, many reflecting their traditions and culture.
- Some universities allow students to pay off their parking tickets by donating food pantry.
- Pace University offers students, faculty and staff a monthly mobile marketplace that provides free food in permanent campus pantry that cannot be stored for longer.
- The University of California, Davis drives a discounted food truck on campus during lunch hours, allowing students to get hot meals at a paid price.
- Virginia Commonwealth University has built mini pantry on campus and based on the snatch-up food, modeling the concept of a free library.
