For some students at Grand Valley State University, this spring will mean more than just exam prep and warmer weather. It also marks the beginning of long months of struggle ahead for many students who are no longer eligible for food assistance benefits due to revamped restrictions on student bridge card eligibility.

In early February, a statement issued by Michigan’s Department of Human Services said only a small number of “truly needy” students will remain eligible and the rest will stop receiving benefits starting April 1.

Rachel Dewitt, a graduate assistant who works with the Women’s Center’s student food pantry, said she thinks the retracting of student bridge cards will impact student food pantry use in the months ahead.

“Given the financial position that many students are in, they have to make choices about how to best allocate their funds,” Dewitt said. “Sometimes, paying for groceries is a huge part of their budget. If they were once eligible for relief from bridge cards, they will have to find new and creative ways to make ends meet.”

Dewitt said she has seen more than 700 students come through the food pantry since it first opened in April of 2009. Both men and women from international students and non-traditional students to graduate students use the food pantry, although Dewitt said the majority of students served are undergraduates.

GVSU’s Catholic Campus Ministries – an extension of St. Luke University Parish located on Lake Michigan Drive – also offers a food pantry for community members in need.

Father Donald Andrie said the food pantry, which is about two years old and sees between 30 and 35 people a week, runs off parish support, donations and through an organization called Food for America, which sells over-produced food and food close to the expiration date at dramatically lower costs to food pantries across America.

“I think for us it’s a very important outreach into the community partly because so many families have been struggling and so many students now, too,” Andrie said.

Despite the resources available to them, students like GVSU junior Chelsea Hildebrandt-Cooper do not feel as though they quite fit the demographic for a food pantry yet and still worry over how to make ends meet in the face of bridge card retractions.

“I would use it if it was a last resort, but I think it’s for people who really, really need it,” said Hildebrandt-Cooper, who said she feels caught in the middle ground between being “too poor to afford groceries” but “not poor enough for a food pantry.”

With no luck on her job search and a father who is currently unemployed, she worries about asking her parents for money.

“Contrary to popular belief, it seems that many students are not able to rely on family for financial support and are in a precarious position when it comes to sustaining themselves through college,” Dewitt said. “…I believe it is important as a university and as a state to do all that we can to support students through this time in their lives and to increase persistence to graduation in whatever way possible.”

Dewitt said the Women’s Center food pantry, which exists to support students out of awareness of their unique financial situation, requires no income verification to access the pantry and with no expectations or judgment surrounding the students’ individual eligibility.

Andrie said as long as students are honest with themselves about their needs, food pantries are a great option for those feeling financially stretched.

“Occasionally you get people who come into food pantries that don’t need help at all but are saving their money for drinks or other things that they shouldn’t be spending their money on,” he said. “But again, especially for people who are spending money on things they have to spend money on and don’t have much left over for food, this is specifically what that’s for. So if students find themselves in that situation, then they are the people that it’s intended for.”

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Info Box:

GVSU Campus Catholic Ministries

Location: St. Luke University Parish, 6163 Lake Michigan Drive

Contact: 616-895-2247

Hours of operation: Thursdays from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Eligibility: Students can access the pantry up to twice a month. No proof of eligibility required.

GVSU Student Food Pantry Allendale

Location: Women’s Center, 1201 Kirkhof Center

Contact: 616-331-2748

Hours of operation: Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Eligibility: Student ID required. Students need to fill out an intake form with basic information for data purposes only. No proof of eligibility needed and no set limit for access.

GVSU Student Food Pantry Grand Rapids

Location: 300 Cook DeVos Center of Health Sciences

Contact: Cherly Borgman, 616-331-7181

Hours of operation: Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Eligibility: Student ID required. Students need to fill out an intake form with basic information for data purposes only. No proof of eligibility needed and no set limit for access.