College life in the era of hope and change.

Melanie Grayce West of the Wall Street Journal reported.

Food Pantries Grow on New York Campuses

Tucked on the fringes of Kingsborough Community College’s campus in Brooklyn’s Manhattan Beach, walled off from the corner of a computer lab, sits a small room about 10 feet square.

Inside isn’t the usual jumble of printers, monitors and cables. Instead, the space houses neatly stacked food essentials—from tuna fish, pasta and peanut butter to juice, milk and canned fruits and vegetables.

The pantry offers free food to students attending classes at this large school—many of whom must make tough daily choices with meager resources.

“Being a student in need, it helps me get by,” said Helen Berger, 31 years old, who studies in Kingsborough’s mental-health program. “If I do have cash, I have to make sure I stretch that dollar.”

Kingsborough’s pantry, which existed in a lesser form before becoming part of the Food Bank For New York City’s network in 2012, is one of a growing number of facilities aimed at addressing the quiet problem of hunger on campus.

The City University of New York, which has operated food pantries at sone of its community colleges in some form for the past few years, is working with the Food Bank to open 10 new ones this fiscal year at Medgar Evers College, John Jay College and other schools.

And the trend isn’t just urban. Fifteen State University of New York schools have food pantries, including the Stony Brook campus on Long Island and the New Paltz campus in Ulster County. Three more are working with local groups to open one before the end of the year, according to a SUNY spokesman.

Few people associate college students with hunger, said Margarette Purvis, the president and chief executive of the Food Bank For New York City.