Staff Writer- Ethan LaLumiere
Soren Sackreiter
Late in 2025, Congress passed a new law that included the largest cuts to SNAP in its history, estimated at $186 billion. Given these changes, more than 3,000,000 Americans could lose assistance, and therefore lose access to food.
This year, Gustavus has taken steps in response to the federal government’s actions. Specifically, when SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Aid Program) benefits were cut, campus responded in two ways: the Community Lunch and the Gustie Pantry.
“President Volin wanted to do something about it, because we recognize that there are some staff that work here that may be receiving those benefits. There may be some students whose families are struggling. So what could we do about that?” Associate Vice President of Auxiliary Services Steven Kjellgren ‘86 asked.
The Gustavus Community Lunch is open every weekday in the Three Crowns Room of the Jackson Campus Center from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. All are welcome to attend.
“The Chief of Staff, Katie Bishop, proposed that we turn the Gustavus Buffet into a place where the community could gather for lunch and not worry about the cost of it. One less thing to stress about. No questions asked. Come on in, it’s open for everybody,” Kjellgren said.
The Community Lunch serves around 70 people each day, with a mix of students, faculty, staff, and community members. Both Auxiliary Services and the President’s Office agreed to extend the Community Lunch for the Spring 2026 semester after seeing how much it was helping people.
“I think the social part of it is useful, so finances aside or food security aside, it’s a good place for our community to kind of interact in a way that they wouldn’t normally, and it doesn’t cost them anything,” Kjellgren said.
Another way Gustavus student leaders have responded to SNAP cuts is through the Gustie Pantry. It has existed for a couple of years, but in September of 2025, the organizers, United Christian Ministries, worked together with Auxiliary Services to create a system where students can donate leftover money on their meal plans to the Gustie Pantry at the end of each month.
“I think we received about 14,000 dollars in donations from students’ dining accounts last semester. We’ve been doing this new model of making sure that we can get food shipped in through Dining Services, because we wanted to make sure there was a way that the school could still sustain some of their budgets and be able to keep paying their faculty and staff,” United Representative and Junior Soph White said.
Located in the basement of Old Main, the Gustie Pantry is also open to anyone who needs it, whenever they may need it. Shelves are restocked whenever the need is apparent, and United works with Dining Services to ensure that everyone has access to the food that they need.
“As the group that manages the Pantry, we can look at what has been or what gets used a lot in the Pantry and what’s needed in the Pantry. From that, we’re able to make an order form, and then the Caf will order that food for us,” United Representative and Senior Addison Andrix. “It makes tracking inventory so much easier. It makes restocking easier. It also just allows us to have a little bit more control of the items that are going in there, and it allows for more consistency.”
The Gustie Pantry had 534 items used in October, with a large increase in the number of students using the Pantry month over month from September.
“Just walking around, I hear chatter about it, and people don’t know how they’re going to spend their money at the end of the month, but then they can donate it. The nice part is that even if you can’t spend it all and you donate some of it, you can always come back and take some stuff from it,” Andrix said.
The donation program has been so successful that other local food pantries in the area have asked for small portions of the donations to help in this time of need. More people than ever are in need of community assistance for meals as SNAP cuts continue to hurt people across America.
“We’ve ended up actually giving some away to the St. Peter food shelf and kids at Bethlehem, and there’s a school in Mankato that has contacted us, asking if they could have some items,” White said. “They have students who don’t have a pantry, and they also have students who need resources like that. They heard that we had one, and wanted to reach out and see if they could have a certain percent of some donations for the month, because the need is big.”