The Food for Thought Pantry is open to all Metro State students, staff, and community members to access food and resources.
Food pantry hours
The Food For Thought Food Pantry's hours are:
Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
No appointment necessary! Students are welcome to drop-in anytime the pantry is open.
Students that are unable to drop in the pantry during the hours of operation can reach out to student.parentcenter@metrostate.edu for additional food resources.
Food pantry intake form
We ask that visitors complete an intake form annually to utilize the food pantry. If you have not yet completed an intake form, please do so here: Food For Thought Intake Form
Visitors can also complete a paper intake form at when they visit the food pantry.
Free meals
We have also teamed up with Kitchen Coalition to offer free meals for the Metro State community.
The meals are made by local restaurants and then provided to the Food for Thought Pantry. The meals come in single serving microwavable take-out trays and will need to be heated before consumption. The meals will vary from week to week and will include one meat option and one vegetarian option.
Visitors can pick up free meals at the Food Pantry during operating hours. Meals can also be found in various offices on campus including:
Founders Hall
Veterans Center
Dean of Students Office
TRIO Office
Admissions
Science Education Center (Fall and Spring semesters only)
Library
Writing Center
New Main
Center for Accessibility Resources
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
The Minnesota Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides supplemental income for purchasing food for low-income households. An eligible person or family receives an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, which is used like any other debit card at the grocery store. The card uses money from a SNAP account set up for the eligible person or family to pay for food items.
Students ages 18–49, attending an institution of higher education like a college, university, trade school, or technical school more than half-time are eligible for SNAP if they meet an exemption and meet all other SNAP eligibility requirements.
Check your eligibility for SNAP here: Metro State SNAP Eligibility Screening Tool.
You can apply for SNAP Benefits on the MN State Benefits website.
The Care Center at Second Harvest Heartland can also assist you in determining your eligibility and applying for SNAP Benefits. You can learn more on their website: Second Harvest Heartland Care Center
If you have more questions about resources at Metro State, please contact us at: student.parentcenter@metrostate.edu.
Additional resources
To locate additional food resources in your community visit Hunger Solutions.
We have created a running document of helpful resources that include information for food, housing, emergency assistance, utilities, etc. This document can be accessed here.
Students can also connect with a staff member to provide additional basic needs support by emailing student.parentcenter@metrostate.edu.
Grievance policy
Our civil rights goal is to treat everyone with fairness and equality while receiving food at the food shelf. Discrimination is prohibited on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, sex, and disability in special nutrition programs funded by the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service.
This commitment is separate from both the university's student complaints and grievance policy (#3030) and the grievance policy of our partner, Good in the ’Hood. The purpose of this commitment is to provide a fair, effective, and efficient mechanism that solves any conflict at the food pantry. A clear and comprehensive effort will be applied in order to solve the issue.
The following guidelines will help the staff or volunteer to handle the situation as calmly as possible and collect the following data:
- the reason for the complaint
- the name of the complainant
- the name of the staff involved
- the name of the person to whom the complaint is made
- the date and time of the incident
- person(s) involved during the complaint