Debra D’Arcy and Keri Jupka from the College of Nursing stock personal hygiene items in the new South Campus location of the Triton Pantry in Seton Hall room 302. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)
As of this summer, the Triton Pantry is reaching even more students at the University of Missouri–St. Louis thanks to a new location on South Campus.
For the past few years, the Triton Pantry has worked hard to support UMSL students who may be facing food insecurity. The pantry, which initially got its start as a smaller effort distributing weekly snack packs before moving into its current home on the first floor of the Millennium Student Center in 2019, offers nonperishable, fresh, frozen and canned foods and household items to any student in need.
“The general college student, whether they are fresh out of high school or maybe older and returning, is probably working a part-time or even full-time job on top of school,” says Shannon Quinn, a senior case manager in Student Advocacy and Care. “A lot of them are parents on top of being in some of these very demanding programs with a lot of extra hours. Having a food resource is so important to us because it’s a place that students can come and help allocate some of those costs elsewhere. If they’re having trouble affording their rent, for instance, they can come to the pantry and help with their grocery costs this month.”
In an effort to make the Triton Pantry more accessible, the Triton Pantry recently teamed up with current and former members of the College of Nursing’s Innovations in Community Engagement Committee – including Julie Bertram, Deb D’Arcy, Marina Fischer and Keri Jupka – to get a new satellite location open on South Campus. The College of Nursing team was excited to help make the Triton Pantry’s services more available to students on South Campus, as they believe the pantry offers a critical service for students in need.
“If you don’t have healthy food to eat at home, you’re not going to be able to learn as well – we know that,” said D’Arcy, an associate teaching professor in the College of Nursing. “We have a lot of students that are also parents and might be struggling to make ends meet. It’s nice to be able to have that resource for students, especially if they may be intermittently struggling with food security. We’re trying to do some good work and support students in a very basic way.”
The South Campus location of the Triton Pantry originally opened during the 2024-25 school year on the second floor of the Nursing Administration Building. But in an effort to drive more foot traffic, the pantry recently relocated to the third floor of Seton Hall, which is home to both classrooms and the Nursing Simulation Lab, at the beginning of the summer.
“There was a lot of thought put into where we could put it to the point where the students would be able to access it as easily as possible,” said Jupka, a senior research associate in the College of Nursing. “It’s also not just nursing students; we encourage all students who are on South Campus and can benefit to stop by.”
With that said, the pantry is open to all UMSL students, offering many of the same items as the Triton Pantry, including dried goods, canned goods, deodorant, toilet paper, hygiene supplies and diapers, with the exception of anything that requires cold storage. Items have been sourced through the Triton Pantry’s existing partnerships including the St. Louis Area Foodbank – UMSL was actually the first university to partner with the organization – as well as Operation Food Search and the St. Louis Area Diaper Bank.
Members of the Innovations in Community Engagement Committee have been active in supporting the pantry with food drives and recipes, and several faculty and staff members in the College of Nursing also volunteer their time in the pantry alongside student workers, who were trained by Quinn.
“Having a food pantry on campus and having multiple locations really goes to show that UMSL is a community of care,” Quinn says. “We care about your basic needs. We want to make sure that you have enough to eat tonight, this week, this month. Parents and students come and tour the campus and they see that we have a food pantry, and they’re like, ‘Wow, that’s really amazing. That’s such an important resource.’ And it just shows that, as a campus, we care about you and all of your needs.”
The South Campus location of the Triton Pantry is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. during summer and Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m during fall and spring semesters.
The North Campus location of the Triton Pantry is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. during summer and Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. during fall and spring semesters.
