UO, LCC students brace for SNAP cuts as food pantry demand grows

At 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, the line of students waiting for free food at Grace Lutheran Church on 17th Avenue was out the door.

The Episcopal Campus Ministry’s Student Food Pantry is preparing for an influx of demand as the community braces for the possible loss of federal food assistance starting Nov. 1.

Operated by the ministry and staffed by student volunteers, the pantry partners with the University of Oregon’s Basic Needs Program and Food for Lane County to host free food distribution hours twice a week for all local students.

The university will supplement the pantry, a mainstay for students, to keep its shelves full over the coming weeks. Officials will buy shelf-stable items and some dairy products for the pantry on a weekly basis to meet an expected increase in student need, according to an email obtained by Lookout Eugene-Springfield.

The university doesn’t have precise data on how many students receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, said Julia Morrill, director of basic needs. But nearly 40 percent of students reported being food insecure in a university survey between 2023 and 2024. 

Lucy Wagner, a junior majoring in family and human services, has been visiting the pantry for about a year. She doesn’t go every week, but in “situations like now,” she said, it’s a necessity. 

Her SNAP benefits might be shut off on Saturday, though she already saw her assistance reduced earlier this year — another reminder of the federal government taking a “disappointing direction,” she said.

The Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” included reforms to the food assistance program that reduced access for some recipients. Now, the ongoing government shutdown may freeze the flow of dollars to fund the program past Oct. 31, 2025, pending the outcome of legal rulings on whether the administration can let the aid expire. One in 6 Oregonians receive the aid.

“We’re on the struggle bus,” Wagner said. “We’re making it through.”

She said the university’s plan to supplement the food pantry was welcome. Existing food accessibility programs at UO are helpful but limited, Wagner said, pointing to how her evening class ending at 5:20 p.m. conflicts with the pantry’s distribution hours of 4 to 6 p.m.

On her way to that same class, she often sees students snaking out the door of the pantry, which served more than 13,000 students between 2022 and 2024, according to university data.

By the time Wagner is able to come in, items like meat are usually gone — leaving “beans and a couple limes.”

“It is a very popular resource here,” she said. “A lot of people use it.”

Nancy Gallagher, a campus chaplain with Episcopal Campus Ministry who helps operate the pantry, said it opened about 10 years ago and has recently received less food from its supplier Food for Lane County due to a funding crunch, leaving volunteers worried.

By cutting off SNAP benefits, the government is making a “really hard journey” for students “nearly impossible,” she said.

“It’s frightening and heartbreaking,” Gallagher said. “I’m quite concerned.”

In the future, Gallagher added, the pantry wants to have a physical presence on campus to boost its visibility and funding.

She said food pantry volunteers, who declined Lookout Eugene-Springfield’s interview requests, have “stepped up beautifully” in meeting needs from the student community. 

Sophomore Jai Pandhoh, UO student government’s communicators director, said student leaders have an emergency relief plan for students losing food benefits and will host a “week of relief” in collaboration with cultural organizations to raise awareness, though he didn’t offer more details. 

Anything that affects the students will affect us, and we’re going to fight for it,” Pandhoh said.

Natalie Dean, a master’s student of education, said she found out about the food pantry two months ago and visits every week or two. In addition to canned goods, the pantry offers seasonal items like cranberry sauce and nonfood items like clothing and pet food, she said.

“It’s been really helping,” she said.

Students can also find free food at the UO Student Sustainability Center’s weekly produce drops and at Lane Community College’s Titan Food Pantry and Closet, which is located on the college’s main campus in the Center Building, Room 153.

Amanda Fallon, the vice president of LCC’s student government, said student leaders are organizing a food drive to stock campus free food cupboards, which are located at spots around campus and contain snacks and ready-to-eat meals, to prepare for imminent need.

Even before SNAP funding was in jeopardy, LCC staff had previously found that more than half of students faced food insecurity in a given month, according to Jen McCulley, the college’s senior advisor for strategic communications.

Now, students and staff are expecting that need to compound.

“It’s not just about the food with our students,” Fallon said. “It’s about a lack of housing, lack of heat, lack of safe space, lack of mental health, physical health, lack of child care, lack of clean clothes … everybody needs those things to be a successful student, to be a successful partner, parent or human being.”

Folks looking to help out students can donate food items and money to the UO and LCC food pantries.

The Ducks Feeding Ducks program, which offers confidential transfers of $12 into a student’s account for use at any campus food venue that accepts Duck Bucks, also accepts donations.