DULUTH — Angie Skutevik dropped spaghetti noodles into a pale pink pot of boiling water. She heated a half-jar of spaghetti sauce, saving the rest for later.

A late lunch complete, Skutevik forked a bite while standing in her dorm’s shared kitchenette.

Shortly after starting at the College of St. Scholastica in January, Skutevik found her one-a-day campus meal plan wasn’t enough.

“College is really expensive, especially if you’re going to stay in the dorms and don’t have a lot of money,” she said. “You’re trying to better your life because you don’t have the financial stability you want, and I was struggling.”

Skutevik shared her concerns with CSS staff, who directed her to

Storm’s Cupboard

.

The on-campus pantry offers everything from fresh vegetables and milk to canned beans and salmon, and deodorant, toothbrushes and shaving cream.

“The first time, I had tears in my eyes because I couldn’t believe that a college could care this much,” she recalled.

Faculty and staff want students to succeed, Skutevik continued, and they understand that if we’re not taking care of our bodies, through shelter and food, we can’t perform well.

Storm’s Cupboard resources are available to students who ask, and they can gain access as many times as they need, said Jessica Ellingson, director of campus ministry, which oversees the pantry.

Students can contact campus ministry from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday to schedule a 15-minute visit to the pantry, located on the second floor of Tower Hall near counseling services and TRIO Student Support Services, Room 2150. Campus security can grant access after office hours.

In 2022, students visited Storm’s Cupboard 330 times, using about $14,000 in donated assistance. The numbers mirror a national trend.

Food insecurity affects

29% of students attending four-year colleges and 38% of those attending two-year colleges, and there are 700-plus on-campus

food pantries in the U.S.

— an increase from 10 years ago, according to The Hope Center Survey 2021.

At CSS, their food pantry is a nicely sized room with shelves lined with canned pears, sweet potatoes, peas and carrots; apple sauce cups; and bins of Clif Bars.

There’s a baking shelf with cornbread and blueberry muffin mix, frosting, gluten-free cake mix and active dry yeast; bottles of ranch dressing, rice vinegar and sweet relish; and a spice corner stocks lemon pepper, cinnamon, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.

Copies of a homemade cookbook list safe food handling instructions, along with recipes for tuna ramen salad and easy bean soup.

Bright pink, travel-size shaving cream canisters fill a shelf, along with Kleenex, shampoo and kitchen sponges.

They stock “free and clear” detergent because some students have allergies, said Skutevik, and the milk is small enough to fit in a mini fridge.

The freezers contain bags upon bags of bagels made fresh on-campus and loaves of store-bought honey wheat and white bread.

There are also frozen meals, packaged by campus dining services, providing leftovers and produce to the pantry.

There are pantry donation bins on campus, and faculty, staff and students donate funds or supplies. A student employee purchases the rest of the items, said Ellingson.

The pantry is in a secured space, Ellingson said, because the school can better respond to the needs of students when they know who’s visiting and at what frequency.

Also, pantry donors appreciate knowing the students’ needs and the impact of their support.

An option for students who don’t attend the main campus: Upon request, Storm’s Cupboard will cover up to three grocery store gift cards per student per academic year. After that, we want to make sure we’re providing more holistic support for students, Ellingson added.

“We want students to have the sustenance and support they need to be healthy and successful while they’re here,” she said.

Stephanie Umez is one of them. She didn’t have transportation when she moved to Duluth from the Twin Cities area to attend CSS. It was fall 2020, and certain resources were shut down due to COVID-19.

College was also a new experience to navigate for Umez, who emigrated from Nigeria. The eldest in her family, she was the first to attend college in the U.S.

“The Storm’s Cupboard helps a lot of us people that are dropped in a different — almost — planet,” she said, referring to international students.

Easy access to the essentials went a long way for the business management major. Not stressing about rides, bus schedules and food — during a pandemic — freed her up to focus on her studies. “It meant a lot for me,” Umez said.

The Storm’s Cupboard started in the ’90s because students wanted to create a space to access food in case of emergencies.

When Ellingson started working at the college in 2008, the pantry was managed by VITA, or Volunteers Involved Through Action, of which she was the student adviser.

At that time, the Storm’s Cupboard was “almost like a bookshelf in the basement of one of our buildings,” Ellingson recalled, adding, “You had to learn about it from word of mouth.”

In 2010, it moved to a full room, and promotion efforts expanded to emails and social media posts. The food shelf eventually landed in its current home in Tower Hall.

Skutevik is thankful for the way the college handles the food pantry. The setup helps remove “that shame” about having to ask for food or figure out how to feed yourself.

“It’s OK to ask for help because we’re a team here,” Skutevik said.

• To donate to Storm’s Cupboard online, visit

  tinyurl.com/yduh3smw.

• For in-person donations, a bin is located outside campus ministry, Room 20, lower level of Tower Hall, 1200 Kenwood Ave.