Syeisha Byrd, director of Syracuse University’s Office of Engagement Programs who took over as head of the Hendricks Chapel Food Pantry at the beginning of the semester, said she wants to generate greater awareness of the pantry, increase donations and community outreach and reduce the stigma surrounding the pantry.

The Hendricks Chapel Food Pantry is located on the second floor of the chapel.

The pantry — which averages seven visitors per day, Byrd said — provides free food and personal care items to students who suffer from hunger and food insecurity, which is a lack of reliable access to a sufficient amount of affordable and nutritious food.

Byrd took over the pantry when its founder, Ginny Yerdon, retired earlier this year.

“I want a student to walk in there and not have their head hung low because they have to use the pantry,” Byrd said.

She has been working with students who volunteer at the Hendricks Chapel Food Pantry and with an organizer from the nearby University United Methodist Church to implement new initiatives and fundraisers. She volunteered at UUMC about two weeks ago.

“They have a really well-run food pantry,” Byrd said. “I just wanted to see what their system was like.”

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Galyn Murphy-Stanley, outreach coordinator for UUMC, said their connection to the food pantry in Hendricks was established by student volunteers who worked at both pantries. Murphy-Stanley said she’s been helping the Hendricks pantry apply to become a partner of the Food Bank of Central New York.

Andrea Cornelius, a senior food studies major, interns at the Hendricks Chapel Food Pantry three days per week and volunteers at UUMC. Cornelius said she’s seen an uptick in visitors since the pantry moved into the Office of Engagement Programs.

“I think with the engagement office, word gets out more easily because of Sy, because she’s involved with so many people,” Cornelius said, using Byrd’s nickname. “There was a big spike last year in users, and I’m sure it might maintain that spike this year.”

Byrd is working with Kyle Westerlund, a senior citizenship and civic engagement major, to start an “Adopt-A-Month” program that recruits academic departments and student organizations on campus to keep the pantry stocked with goods for one month.

The pantry was fairly empty during March and April last year, Byrd said. “Adopt-A-Month” is a way to ensure that there will always be food in the pantry.

The club BrainFeeders has already signed up for October 2019, Westerlund said. He’s handling outreach to student clubs and Greek life organizations, while Byrd contacts academic departments.

“Syeisha is going to give the organization or department a list of what they’re lacking at the food pantry,” Westerlund said. “Then, with that list, they’ll focus the food driving on what we need at the pantry.”

Byrd also wants to pursue a type of donation drive called a “canstruction” with the Carrier Dome, an event in which participants build a structure out of canned goods that are then donated after the competition.

“My goal, my overall dream, would be to do it during a basketball game — backcourt,” Byrd said. She said it would be ideal to have corporate sponsors, as well as students, participate in the competition.

Not all of Byrd’s ambitions have gone without setbacks. She hoped to work with a team of design students to restructure the pantry, but they chose to work on another project. Byrd said she’s talking with a design professor to attempt the project next semester.

Nathan Shearn, a senior anthropology major, volunteers at the pantry and said he thinks it could use more volunteers. Byrd said in an email that 711 people used the food pantry between August 2017 and May 2018.

“We need to bridge the gap between students who need the resources and maybe don’t know about it and the students who are willing to volunteer their time to make sure that the resources are still there and that the food is still there and useable,” Shearn said.

Shearn said his father, who works at a Buffalo school, told him about a student who went a few days without eating while working multiple jobs and caring for his siblings without support from his parents.

“He was working at the library one day and just collapsed,” Shearn said. “Hearing these kinds of stories really compelled me to get engaged with organizations on campus … because I wanted to do something about it.”

The Wisconsin HOPE Lab, which studied the experiences of low-income students in post-secondary education before closing in July, published an April study that found 36 percent of university students and 42 percent of community college students reported being food insecure during a 30-day period.

Being food insecure while in college can negatively impact academic performance and chances of graduating, especially for low-income students, according to researchers at the lab.

The pantry in Hendricks sees the most use from upperclassmen and graduate students who live off campus and may not have money for food after paying for rent and utilities, Byrd said.

“We think a lot about: ‘How do we help the community?’” she said. “Sometimes we have to look right at the university and also ask ourselves: ‘How do we help our students?’”

Published on November 13, 2018 at 9:56 pm

Contact Mary: mdcatalf@syr.edu | @mrycatalfamo