SILVER CITY, NM—The Mustang Dining Hall’s service provider, Aramark, has teamed up with the One Stop food pantry to reduce food insecurity on the WNMU campus.
When the university closes for breaks, such as the week of Spring Break, explained Food Service Director Valencia Villanueva, the Dining Hall often has food stored that will not last until students return.
“If we can’t save the food, or we know it is not going to last when we are on break, it automatically goes to the food pantry,” she said.
According to Villanueva, food insecurity in Silver City has been a focus for Aramark since the company became the university’s food service provider last year. “We know that [food insecurity] is a big issue—not only on campus but in town,” she said, “so anything we can do, we want to be able to do it.”
The effort is also personal for Villanueva. “Where I grew up, there wasn’t always food security,” she explained. “You always had to wonder whether there was going to be a meal. So being able to share our extra food feels really amazing.”
Student Services Coordinator Kim Woodard, who administers the One Stop, said that the collaboration with the Dining Hall has made a substantial impact on the food pantry’s ability to meet the needs of the WNMU community. “Right before Winter Break,” she said, “they gave us so much that our refrigerator was overflowing. It was awesome.”
Over Spring Break, the collaborative effort to feed students expanded even further when the One Stop partnered with the Western Institute of Lifelong Learning (WILL) to provide meals to the students that remained in the residence halls over the break. Volunteers from WILL cooked meals for the students while the Dining Hall was closed, said Woodard.
These kinds of partnerships are important to the mission of the One Stop, indicated Woodard. “The more partnerships we can get going across campus, the better, to help students in any way we can,” she said, “especially around food security.”
WNMU Director of Food Security and Sustainability Katie Poirier commended Villanueva and Woodard for their collaboration. Their dedication to working together, she said, “ensures that surplus food goes to students in need rather than to waste.”