Psychology Club Members Volunteer to Assist Cougar Pantry with Restocking

In collaboration with the Psychology Club, the food pantry hosted a volunteering event, wherein participants could come in and help organize and stock the shelves. 

Anna Tran–President of the Psychology Club and also a student-employee of the food pantry–said this event was a good opportunity to raise awareness of and engagement with the Cougar Pantry, while also providing members of the Psychology Club with volunteering experience.

“I know for psych majors who are interested in grad school, it can be really competitive. So I think offering an easy type of volunteer opportunity that’s already on campus would be an easy way for them to get volunteer experience they can put on their grad applications.” She explained. 

Tran went on to say that, unlike other volunteering opportunities off campus, which may have stricter requirements such as training, volunteering at the food pantry can be very straightforward. “We just need you to check expiration dates or, like, put things on shelves. It’s very straightforward. No training requirement.” 

When asked if she or Carmen Herrera–Basic Needs Navigator and her boss–were planning to host similar events in the future, she explained that they typically ask for volunteers on restocking days.

“So for example, my coworkers, I believe later this week, will be doing a whole big restocking where they’re gonna go out and pick up and buy all of the foods we offer here, but it’s a lot of food,” Tran said.

She said that it can be pretty tedious to bring the newly purchased food back up to the food pantry, organize it by expiration date, and load it back up onto the shelves, so they typically seek out volunteers to help with those tasks.

“We’re trying to streamline the process of signing up to volunteer. Carmen, she’s mentioned this to me … we’ll start, like, a volunteer email list. So just, each time we do need volunteers, we’ll just email, for example, maybe a week ahead of the date.” 

When asked about what the Cougar Pantry means to them, one of the student volunteers described it as a reliable and convenient resource on campus, saying that having access to these resources allows them to focus on other responsibilities without as much stress. 

The student also said that, as a public health major, they viewed volunteering as both a way to give back and an opportunity to gain insight into an issue they care about. Because they personally use the pantry, they said the experience felt especially meaningful, describing it as “giving back to something that I use.” 

They also noted that food insecurity is a significant topic within public health, and volunteering offered a chance to better understand how the pantry operates behind the scenes.