Rider Pantry implements weekly walk-in hours 

By Caroline Haviland

In an effort to educate the community on its offerings and rebuild a consistent stream of shoppers, the Rider Resource Pantry began a new initiative on March 4 called Walk-in Wednesdays, a weekly shift back to its former open-door policy. 

The idea for the weekly event was introduced by Rider Resource Pantry Manager Shayana Reyes-Oatman, who noticed the decline in the amount of students taking advantage of the resource center, located in the Joseph P. Vona Center annex adjacent to Daly Dining Hall. 

Kickstarted in February 2018, The Pantry’s first Walk-in Wednesday amounted to 27 orders, a feat the Pantry did not come close to achieving earlier in the semester, said Reyes-Oatman, a sophomore psychology major, as they usually receive four orders or less a week.

Rider Resource Pantry volunteer Sanaa Christmas, a freshman biochemistry major, said she has also seen the Pantry get orders that were canceled shortly after, or people decided not to show up for their items. 

The minimal traffic partly comes from a lack of awareness about the service, Reyes-Oatman noted, and a change in their operations to center around PantrySoft, a software that allows the Pantry’s workers to manage their inventory and orders.

Through PantrySoft, each student gets a fixed amount of points each semester to employ while shopping at the Pantry for any of its non-perishable and frozen foods, milk, eggs, fresh fruit, school and household supplies and hygienic products. 

However, this ended the Pantry’s walk-in policy in 2024, as students could only access the Pantry by registering in the new system and placing a pick-up order. 

Vice President of Community Engagement and Belonging Darryl Mace, who became the Pantry’s supervisor in October, said that while PantrySoft is a great tool for the workers to track what students need and make data-informed decisions, people still seem to not have gotten used to the new system. 

“[The Pantry workers] are so used to doing online ordering. It wasn’t that way and now it is that way. I think students just have to get their mind around that,” Mace said. 

Reyes-Oatman volunteered at the Pantry her entire freshman year and became a manager at the start of her sophomore year. Throughout her time at the Pantry, she said she noticed people like the “personable aspect of the Pantry where you can just come in and meet somebody and say hi.”

With PantrySoft’s implementation and campus consciousness of the resource center also decreasing, the Pantry’s volunteers saw less of that atmosphere. 

“[The Rider Resource Pantry] was a high commodity on campus and then over time … it kind of dwindled,” Reyes-Oatman said. “I think that’s kind of like the period we’re in now, we’re trying to build it up to what it once was, or have it be greater than what it once was.”

During the first Walk-in Wednesday, Reyes-Oatman said she experienced interactions with students that highlighted the significance of having this outlet on campus. 

“Two students in particular stood out to me … One of them was like ‘My meal plan just got canceled and I’m happy that we’re able to have this service because now I’m able to have food,’ Reyes-Oatman said. “Another student said their food stamps had just got cut and they were like ‘This is a great service. I’m grateful to be able to come here and get what I need.’”

The Pantry’s inventory is currently entirely donor supported, Mace said, mainly from Gourmet Dining, Rider’s main food service provider. The administrator is looking to acquire grants for the resource center to broaden its offerings.

The volunteers at the Pantry, most of which are students within Rider’s Bonner Community Leaders Program, have also begun brainstorming future partnerships and advertising plans, Mace said, to get the word out about their services. 

“I think first year students may not know so much about the pantry. [The volunteers] have really come up with some plans to advertise the pantry more and just to raise awareness about it,” Mace said. 

In the same spirit, Reyes-Oatman shared a thought that she felt embodies the purpose behind the Rider Resource Pantry.

She said, “This is a resource for [students]. If they’re in need, they’re absolutely welcome. The volunteers are super friendly … and we would love to have [students] come over.”