Frequently Asked Questions - Food Pantry

Any student who is food insecure, does not have enough food, or enough money to buy food during their time on campus is welcome to visit the Basic Needs Center Food Pantry up to once per week. Our free Pantry aims to serve any UC Berkeley student (including graduate, international students, visiting scholars, and postdocs) in need of immediate food assistance. 

All you need is your Cal ID or Cal ID # (if you don't have your physical card yet) and a bag for your food!

To avoid long physical lines, we have a virtual line via an online web application called Q-Less. The line opens during our open hours and you can join from anywhere on campus or in person at our check in table on the first floor of the MLK Student Union. It will close for 30 minutes during restock periods and when the line has filled up or reached capacity for that given open hour period.

You can find the Food Pantry hours, restock times, and link to our virtual line in the step by step instructions on the Food Pantry page.

No, any day and time we have open hours is a good time to visit! Our team has implemented breaks into our open Food Pantry hours to ensure that we are better able to manage food stock and provide equitable availability of items. Whether a student is able to come at the start of the day or at the end of the day, these restock closures enable us to ensure the same amount of food is available at each session.

If you are in need of more food resources beyond the Food Pantry, we highly recommend that you fill out the Basic Needs Center Assistance Form and find out if you qualify for CalFresh. Additionally there are several nearby community resources where you can find additional food.

Both are shared community resources and can be accessed by any student in need on a self-assessed basis. The Food Pantry provides food up to once per week. Grab n Go is our free meal program and can be accessed up to once per day at our Welcome Center. Availability for Grab n Go can fluctuate depending on donations received through our campus dining.

Our Food Pantry inventory comes from a few different places: 

• ACCFB (Alameda County Community Food Bank): Non Perishables, Produce, Eggs, and Frozen Proteins

• Berkeley Dining: Prepared Foods 

• Berkeley Food Network: Non Perishables, Produce

• Berkeley Student Farms: Fresh Produce 

• Daily Bread: Community volunteers we partner with to deliver donations from local businesses. We receive Baked Goods from local bakeries such as Boichik Bagels, La Farine, Fournee, Acme, Firebrand, Third Culture, and Semifreddi’s; Produce from Monterey Market; and Prepared Foods from Village Market.

• Daylight Foods: Produce, Eggs, and Tofu

• UNFI: Non Perishables and Frozen Produce

• Donations: Everything else!

• 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!

The Basic Needs Food Pantry is only for students. However, we are currently collaborating with the the Staff Basic Needs Working Group to serve staff in need on our campus. Berkeley Staff Assembly will be hosting monthly food pantries for staff at Unit 3.

The Food Pantry is run by 100+ student and community volunteers, 10-15 College Corps interns, and about 15 paid student staff, with support from the full-time Food Resource Coordinator. 

At the start of every semester we onboard volunteers. Each spring semester we hold interviews for paid student staff positions! For more information, please visit our Volunteer & Job Opportunities page.

Any UC Berkeley student, staff, or community member can volunteer with us. Volunteers are recruited before the start of each semester and then onboarded during the first month. Each volunteer is asked to come to the Food Pantry for at least 1 hour per week. We require attending a mandatory volunteer orientation hosted at the start of the semester.

Please visit the Volunteer & Job Opportunities page for more details.

The BNC collects SIDs to track total and unique visitors to better inform and improve our services. The BNC asks for name, email, and number of dependents to better serve students and enable the Food Pantry team to reach out in the case of a food recall.

We currently do not receive federal funds (our funding is a mixture of state, student fees, and donor funds) and would have no need to share data with the federal government. We do not share personally identifiable information with external partners.