HOUGHTON – Michigan Tech’s Husky Fan food pantry is fulfilling a crucial need for students since its opening at the beginning of the fall semester, said Whitney Boroski, health and wellness coordinator at Michigan Tech.

“We have seen quite a few visits, Boroski said. “We have seen almost 100 visits, so we have a lot of students coming in.”

The food pantry quickly developed three “pieces,” Boroski said. The first piece is the food pantry itself, which is open three days a week, 6 to 8 p.m. on Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The second piece is the Meal Swipe Program, “which students can donate their guest meal swipes off of their meal programs, which they purchase when they live in the halls,” said Boroski. “So if a student needs a guest swipe, they log in online, and get it added on to their Husky card, and then they can go through line like any other student.”

The third piece is emergency meals. As the food pantry is open on a limited basis, for urgent situations, there are emergency meal packs available at the Public Safety office, Boroski said. The packs consist of two or three meals in a ziplock bag and are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no questions asked.

The food pantry offers more than just food, according to Boroski. This semester, the food pantry held a cooking class, the goal of which was to teach students how to prepare healthy meals economically.

“We did a really easy chicken dish. It came out to be like 73 cents per meal, and super quick – a 20-minute meeting,” she said.

Students indicated they would like to see more classes like that during the spring semester.

The food pantry also has a large group of volunteers, which Boroski said she hopes to utilize more in the near future. She hopes to have volunteers “take the lead on some of these instructional programs, like the cooking class, grocery store tours, those types of things,” she said.

While the pantry has many organizations and individuals donating food items, non-food items remain in short supply.

“We are usually short on things like deodorant, toothpaste, toilet paper, feminine products and paper products,” Boroski said.