UW—Madison graduate student working to alleviate food insecurity on campus.

On a crisp Wednesday afternoon in October, Amelia Weidemann, second-year graduate student at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, scans boxes filled with fresh tomatoes, cilantro, acorn squash and apples at the Eagle Heights Community Center in Madison. As she observes the produce, Weidemann chucks squishy tomatoes and bruised apples into the trash, ensuring each box is ready for the Open Seat Food Pantry’s weekly food distribution.

Weidemann, the Open Seat’s student supervisor, is pursuing her master’s in public health at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. In just a year, she has grown the Open Seat immensely through her expansion of community access.

The Open Seat, a student-run food pantry, has made local foods more accessible by providing fresh vegetables, eggs and dairy products for UW-Madison students and families who identify as food insecure on campus. The Open Seat is partnered with Second Harvest Foodbank, an organization committed to nutrition security and food equity. Second Harvest works with local farmers to bring their mission to life. This partnership is essential for the Open Seat’s impact and success at UW-Madison.

Primarily located at East Campus Mall in the Student Activity Center, the Open Seat is open three days a week among various hours. Additionally, on Wednesdays, the Open Seat runs a food drive at the Eagle Heights Community Center, supplying over 100 families with their weekly groceries.

This past Wednesday, on Oct. 9, the Open Seat sourced 4,000 pounds of food to feed the community.

Weidemann and student volunteers stacked milk crates and organized bread loafs as UW—Madison students and community members placed their belongings in line, awaiting the start of the pantry at 5 p.m. Children’s screams echoed throughout the community center’s basketball gym as empty strollers sat among school bags.

Weidemann smiled as she pointed out familiar faces of children, noting that she’s had the honor of watching young families grow.

“There is a lot of joy,” Weidemann said, “which is nice to see in these spaces.”

Approximately 80% of the pantry’s shoppers are international students, according to the Open Seats community survey, and graduate students are primary users as well. Among this demographic, most shoppers are their family’s primary source of income.

Graduate students often rely on university stipends to support their families, potentially putting them below the poverty line, according to Weidemann.

To make the food pantry more accessible, Weidemann has implemented change. Now, the pantry has evening hours, works with culturally diverse farmers, and organizes a cooking class to ensure people are educated on how to cook the available foods.

“Ever since she’s joined it’s been awesome,” Solomon Lubar said, one of the Open Seat’s undergraduate directors. “We’ve been growing a ton and she’s been managing it perfectly. She puts in that extra effort that the previous boss didn’t.”

While the Open Seat is alleviating food insecurity right now, long-term solutions are not improving. 70% of shoppers use the Open Seat as their primary source of groceries, according to the Open Seat’s community survey.

“Thinking about access to food and healthy food that I think about is that, in the states, I would argue we have a lot of short-term solutions and band aid solutions,” Weidemann said. “And so even though it is great, a food pantry itself is very much an emergency solution, right. Like, this is not sustainable.”

For example, the American Rescue Plan gave $5 million in federal aid to Second Harvest during Covid-19. This funding allowed food pantries to subsidize eggs and milk, creating more affordability in sourcing food items. However, this funding is projected to run out by January 2025, said Weidemann, and there is no evidence of the money being restored. This impacts the Open Seat’s funding and resources and, if not renewed, will cost the organization hundreds of dollars.

“There is no capacity building here for people who actually need the resources,” Weidemann said. “It [the Open Seat] is not a long-term solution.”

These challenges raise essential questions when searching to improve community food access. Weidemann asks, how close is the nearest grocery store? What are the policies surrounding food access? Weidemann’s work and education has taught her the importance of food shares and subsidized organic farming. However, this is not possible without proper funding.

“We don’t usually give public health all the attention it deserves,” Weidmann concluded. “Just because it's doesn’t have the most visible effects doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.”