Frequently Asked Questions

The BNEF is intended to provide one-time, short-term emergency financial assistance in the following areas:

1. Rental Assistance

2. Food Assistance

3. Housing Security Deposit*

4. Other emergency and safety needs

*The Financial Aid and Scholarships Office will reach out to students who request support with a Housing Security Deposit to review their form submission and request additional information as part of an application to the

• Tuition and Fees

• Research and coursesupplies

• Relocating Costs (storage, moving trucks, gas)

• Cost of Insurance (home, auto, pet etc)

• Ongoing payments for utilities/ wifi/ phone

• Ongoing payments for medical bills

*If you are in need of funds immediately, you can access a Short-Term Emergency Loan through the Financial Aid & Scholarships Office

Financial assistance for up to one month of rent for students experiencing new/unexpected loss of income, safety needs (displacement, SVSH, other safety needs), or students unable to afford rent due to emergency circumstances.

Food assistance for students with short-term food needs that exceed what the Basic Needs Food Pantry can provide. Eligible students must be in the process of applying to CalFresh, have experienced a lapse in or termination of their CalFresh benefits, be ineligible for CalFresh, or have experienced other extenuating circumstances.

Fully or partially cover a housing security deposit to secure off-campus or on campus housing. Housing security deposits must be paid within the last 60 days or are due within 60 days of moving in.

*Note: Applicants will be required to submit a copy of their signed lease agreement. While there is no obligation to repay the award, the award is self-generation and the more students return to the fund the more we are able to assist other students that find themselves in similar situations.

One-time financial assistance to address immediate needs brought up by an emergency situation with considerations for emergency, safety, or assistive needs. Our team may reach out for clarification on needs to determine relevant resources but we will not provide in-depth support.

• Students can fill out the Basic Needs Assistance Form and provide financial need information when asked for it.

• Staff and faculty can submit the Assistance Form on behalf of students they are supporting and let the BNC know if it is necessary to coordinate care between our teams.

• Filling out the Assistance Form guarantees that someone from the BNC will reach out to the student and provide direct support and/or other relevant resources. It does NOT guarantee that a student will receive funding.

• There is no one-size-fits-all criteria for eligibility. Instead, our team will assess each student’s individual needs, available resources, and financial aid profile to determine whether funding is both possible, necessary, and in alignment with the scope of the program.

• All enrolled students are eligible to request support, including grad, undergrad, international, and undocumented students. Unfortunately staff, faculty, and visiting scholars are NOT eligible to receive financial support, but can access other resources like Food Pantry and CalFresh.

• However, being eligible to request support does not mean students are guaranteed financial assistance.

• Basic needs challenges are complicated and not always fully addressed by one-time financial assistance. This new model allows the BNC to better serve students by providing coordinated support from all of our programs and stronger connections to long-term support.

• Instead of being singularly focused on financial assistance, this process opens the door for students to connect with the most relevant programs and resources. This will include emergency financial awards when possible and necessary, and emphasizes other forms of supporting students as well.

• Students have the option to only request support with direct financial assistance by opting out of Care Coordination when filling out the BN Assistance Form.

• Students who are only interested in financial assistance must fill out the financial needs section of the assistance form to be considered for funding.

• For students who opt out of Care Coordination, our team will still share relevant resources and may reach out for clarification on their needs, but we will not provide in-depth support.

• No, we are moving away from an application process and towards a needs assessment and Care Coordination model.

• Instead of reviewing applications, our Care Team will review form submissions and meet with students when needed to determine the most relevant resources and level of care for each student case.

• The BNEF is the current iteration of the BNC’s financial assistance programs, and it is intended to provide emergency financial assistance in the areas of rent, food, housing security deposit and other emergency and safety needs to students who have exhausted their financial resources.

• The BNEF was redesigned in 2022 to be better integrated with other Basic Needs Center services. Instead of an application, students submit a request for assistance through the Basic Needs Assistance Form. For these requests, students will now receive Care Coordination services, where emergency funding is only one option among many resources students can qualify for.

Changes are coming to CalFresh Program due to the end of the Public Health Emergency this summer. 

What do you need to know?

Now is the time to learn if you qualify for CalFresh and to apply! While California is working on making sure the impact of the transition out of the Public Health Emergency is minimal, the best time to apply is by June 9, 2023. Afterward, students who qualify because they have an Expected Family Contribution (EFC) of 0 or because they meet the expanded definition of work-study eligibility will need to meet another criteria to be able to access CalFresh. 

What if I am already receiving CalFresh and qualified under the criteria listed above?

You will be able to maintain your benefits until your next annual recertification (1 year after your initial application).  Most students will still qualify for CalFresh, just under different criteria.

How do I get support if I have more questions?

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to the Basic Needs Center’s CalFresh Team for more support! You can stop by our CalFresh open hours or contact our team: www.tinyurl.com/bncassistance.

• The Food Pantry is in the MLK Student Union. Our newly renovated space is in BNorth. This is on the bottom floor of the MLK Student Union, on the north end of the building, but you will have to check in on the 1st floor before heading down.

Please visit our pantry page for more details about how to access, but here is an outline below:

• We have a virtual line which opens during open hours. This is to avoid long physical lines and can be joined from anywhere on campus or in person at our check in on the first floor of the MLK Student Union.

• The pantry operates on a self-assessed, need-based basis. You are welcome to come up to once per week, take as much as you need while being mindful that the food pantry is a shared community resource for emergency food needs

• There are no eligibility requirements for using the pantry. 

• All you need is your Cal ID or Cal ID # (if you don't have your physical card yet).

• We offer items such as rice, pasta, milk, cereal, freezer items, and fresh produce! We restock every day, but due to shortages sometimes certain inventory items may be out of stock.

• The food pantry is run by students and couldn’t stay open if it weren’t for the 100+ volunteers who support it. The pantry serves thousands of people every month!

• Before you arrive in-person, you must join the virtual line. It will open when the pantry opens.

• This virtual line is replacing long physical lines that used to wrap around the building. By joining on your phone, computer, or our on-site kiosk, you can be in line without physically being here! The virtual line gives you the opportunity to do other things without losing your spot, and allows students or staff with busy schedules to still access our community emergency food resource.

• Use the button that says "Click Here to Join the Virtual Line Before You Arrive"  on our website: pantry.berkeley.edu, or come visit our kiosk at the BNorth entrance on the 1st floor of the MLK Student Union.

• Once you’ve signed up, you should receive a text message informing you about your estimated wait time. You will also receive another text when it is close to your turn. Once you receive a text saying “you have reached the front of the line,” please check in at the front desk near the BNorth entrance of the Student Union, this is the one closest to the Cesar Chavez Student Center on the 1st floor.

YES! We ask that you bring your own bag if you have one. We usually have a few limited boxes and donated bags available if you forget.

The pantry aims to serve any UC Berkeley student (including graduate students), postdocs, visiting scholar, and staff in need of emergency food assistance. 

We ask that everyone bring their Cal ID, which we ask users to scan as part of our “check-in” process.

We do sometimes serve members of the community who are not directly affiliated with the university coming in for food assistance. Our official policy is that no one is turned away, though we do aim to redirect non-UC Berkeley affiliated visitors towards resources that are intended for Berkeley and Bay Area community members, like the Berkeley Food Network Food pantry.

• Visitors are welcome to come up to once per week. 

• You do not have to come to the pantry on the same day every week, you can come to the pantry whenever it works best for your schedule.

• If you consistently need to visit the pantry more than once in a given week, we would highly recommend that you find out if you qualify for additional food resources. Since we serve such a large community we cannot accommodate multiple visits in a week, unless you have a specific need, such as you can only take a couple of items on your bike.

• CalFresh, a monthly food benefit, could be a great option for you! 

To learn more, please visit our website. If you are not able to qualify for CalFresh, we encourage you to utilize community resources.

The pantry is run by 100+ student volunteers and managed by about 10-15 student staff, with support from the Food Resource Coordinator.

Student volunteers are recruited at the beginning of each semester, with the expectation that they will be at a shift that works for their schedule each week or will be "on-call" in case weekly volunteers have to miss a shift. They also have the option to become and intern for units as part of the Ethnic Studies program (ETHSTD 197).

Any student can apply to be a volunteer, with priority given to returning volunteers and new volunteers selected based on scheduling needs. Volunteers are usually only recruited at the beginning of each semester; though if more are needed, in the past they have been added to the schedule throughout the semester.

If students and community members would like to volunteer but can’t/don’t want to commit to a weekly shift, we encourage them to reach out to us via email to come on a drop-in basis and help out as often as they like.

Additionally, to alleviate our student volunteers during RRR & Finals Week, we modify our schedule and ask staff and community members to sign up to keep the pantry running for those two weeks.

Our student staff are hired as current leads and ambassadors graduate/move on to other roles. 

Some items are purchased and other items are donated.

We order nonperishables from the wholesale supplier UNFI, and ACCFB (Alameda County Community Food Bank). We order produce from ALBA Farmers and Daylight foods, but we also get some of our produce from Berkeley student Farms!

Bread, some dairy items, produce, prepared food/prepackaged meals, and miscellaneous nonperishables are donated by businesses and community members. Some donations are consistent and others are sporadic, and they often vary semester-to-semester. 

Produce is donated from neighbors' trees, grocery stores (like Monterey Market in North Berkeley or Berkeley Bowl), and community farms and gardens (like Gill Tract Community Farm or Clark Kerr Garden). It is delivered by volunteers or picked up by our food recovery team. Some of our produce and nearly all bread and pastries are delivered by volunteers associated with the Bay Area nonprofit Daily Bread. They also often accommodate donations of dairy and eggs from grocery stores like Berkeley Bowl. We also receive regular donations of excess food from our dining halls and campus restaurants like Golden Bear Cafe, which are picked up and processed by our internal Food Recovery team.

If you are interested in supporting our efforts, we highly recommend monetary instead of in-kind donations since we get great pricing through our distributors!

Our funding comes from a variety of sources: currently our pantry inventory is purchased through funding from individual donors and some funding from the state of CA for Basic Needs. Our operations, other supplies, and staffing are paid for with funds from state Basic Needs funding, donations from Peet’s and Bank of the West and smaller individual donations. We also receive funding from the ASUC thanks to the recently passed Basic Needs Referendum, but most of this goes to other Basic Needs programs. 

We are part of the UC Berkeley Foundation which is a registered 501(c)3. If you would like to report a donation on your taxes we are happy to share our tax ID # for tax refund purposes. You can email us at foodpantry@berkeley.edu.

We partner with several community pantries and encourage you to access their resources if and when you need them!

• Berkeley Food Networkweekly at 9th & University Ave.

• Public Mobile Pantriesmonthly in Albany, South, and Central Berkeley

• Berkeley Food Pantry weekly at 1600 Sacramento St.